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New data on Hengrui Pharma and Kailera Therapeutics’ investigational oral GLP-1 have validated the late-stage weight loss asset and paved the road for a regulatory submission in China, but analysts pointed to high rates of nausea and vomiting that could challenge the ongoing U.S. study.
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Molecular glue degraders are gaining traction in the clinic as well as funding from Big Pharma, with their potential to treat previously “undruggable” cancers and immunological diseases. Here are five clinical programs worth keeping an eye on.
Last month, the FDA launched TrialBlazer, intended to streamline the IND path and bring early clinical trials and medical innovation home to the U.S. It’s a start, but new agency leadership must see it through.
Significant leadership instability at the FDA—compounded by continued workforce attrition—led to a slight slowdown in overall regulatory productivity in the first half of this year, but the agency has been catching up of late.
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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 first two weeks of October saw BMS’s $4.8 billion buyout of Mirati, Lilly’s $1.4 billion purchase of Point, Kyowa Kirin’s $387 million acquisition of Orchard and AbbVie’s $110 million Mitokinin deal.
The regulator’s approval of oral, once-daily etrasimod, to be marketed as Velsipity, was based on favorable Phase III safety and efficacy data showing significant clinical remission of ulcerative colitis.
Last year, the FDA declined to approve a drug that appears to reverse a rare and debilitating enzyme deficiency. Some experts say it’s emblematic of a need for more flexibility around therapeutics targeting rare diseases.
The biotech will pause its lirafugratinib program for a rare bile duct cancer to target a larger FGFR2-altered solid tumors population, citing the Inflation Reduction Act as a driving decision factor.
The biopharma’s data manipulation controversy continues with a recently leaked City University of New York report, which found signs of “egregious” and “deliberate” misconduct by a company advisor.
The German biotechnology company has teamed with Suzhou-based biotech MediLink Therapeutics to develop next-generation antibody-drug conjugates for cancer.
The FDA is gearing up for six decisions in the next two weeks, two of which involve highly anticipated medicines for rare diseases.
Shares of Akero Therapeutics took a hit after the company missed the primary endpoint in a Phase IIb study of efruxifermin in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
More than 54% of patients treated with mirikizumab achieved clinical remission at 52 weeks versus 19.6% of those on placebo. Eli Lilly will submit a marketing application in Crohn’s disease to the FDA in 2024.
The regulator issued a Complete Response Letter citing “deficiencies” at the company’s Reykjavik plant, this time for its Stelara biosimilar AVT04. It’s the fourth FDA rejection for Alvotech since last year.