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Biogen touted an “unprecedented” drop in tau in a Phase 2 trial, backing the company’s decision to take diranersen to Phase 3 despite a missed primary endpoint and seemingly supporting the anti-tau approach.
FEATURED STORIES
As antibody-drug conjugates advance and move into earlier lines of treatment, drug developers have to build gentler therapies that don’t just extend survival but improve it.
FDA’s rare disease decisions are strongest when the patient community has a voice in advisory committee decisions.
The lineup at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference will provide critical insight into where the industry is headed with regard to targets being explored to vanquish the elusive neurodegenerative disease.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Congressional letters sent to the CEOs of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, BMS and AbbVie this week voicing concerns about the pharmas’ clinical trials in China highlight an ongoing discrepancy in how government and industry think about the rise of the Asian country’s biotech industry.
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The French drugmaker’s shares dropped more than 15% Friday morning on the announcement that it has abandoned its goal of a 32% operating profit margin for 2025, focusing on long-term profitability.
FDA
Following an FDA rejection and a previous discontinuation in psoriasis, Eli Lilly’s anti-IL-23 antibody has finally won an approval in ulcerative colitis, joining a crowded inflammatory bowel disease market.
The company’s blockbuster cancer asset Keytruda brought in more than $6.3 billion in the third quarter, a 17% increase from the same period last year, while bolstering its antibody-drug conjugate portfolio.
FDA
Santhera Pharmaceuticals and partner Catalyst Pharmaceuticals got the FDA’s greenlight for their Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Agamree, which is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2024.
The company on Thursday said it now expects more than $10 billion in new product sales in 2026, despite previously forecasting $10 billion to $13 billion in 2025.
With recent high-profile failures, experts say safety concerns and a lack of diversification are hindering the field—but still hold out hope for an approval.
Attributing losses to exchange rate and pipeline impairment losses, the Japanese biopharma dropped its reported net profit forecast of 142 billion yen ($945.1 million) to 93 billion yen ($618.8 million).
A third-party audit found no integrity and reliability problems with data from BioXcel Therapeutics’ Phase III trial. The company intends to file a supplemental New Drug Application for its candidate BXCL501.
Subcutaneous injections of Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi led to numerically greater amyloid removal than the intravenous version of the Alzheimer’s disease therapy, though risks of brain swelling and bleeding remained.
Following the regulator’s denial of patisiran’s label expansion, Alnylam has published late-stage data for the RNAi therapeutic in The New England Journal of Medicine demonstrating its efficacy in ATTR-cardiomyopathy.