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IPO
After debuting on the public markets with $256.3 million and raking in an additional $472 million, Veradermics has emerged as one of biotech’s biggest post-IPO standouts. CEO Reid Waldman credits the weight loss craze for establishing consumer-driven channels.
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.
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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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When given at potentially therapeutic doses, Verve’s base editor led to strong reductions in LDL cholesterol and PCSK9 levels in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia.
Novo Nordisk posted new data at AHA 2023 showing that its blockbuster weight loss drug could cut the risk of major cardiovascular events—including heart attack—across patient subgroups.
The allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy company is now approaching penny stock territory after its multiple sclerosis drug failed to reach the primary endpoint in a mid-stage study.
FDA
The FDA’s approval of Eli Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound intensifies an already heated battle with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy in the lucrative weight-loss drug market, as other drugmakers hope to get a piece of the action.
To protect the central nervous system, the blood-brain barrier bars entry to around 98% of molecules—but approaches like Roche’s trontinemab could spell new hope in Alzheimer’s and beyond.
The company’s immunotherapy, in combination with chemotherapy Avastin, showed favorable progression-free survival in a late-stage hepatocellular carcinoma study.
FDA
Following a more than two-month delay to its PDUFA action date, Valneva’s chikungunya vaccine Ixchiq has won the regulatory race beating biotech Bavarian Nordic.
The two mid-stage flops—one in major depressive disorder and another in focal onset seizures—involve drug candidates from partnerships with Xenon Pharmaceuticals and Takeda, respectively.
FDA
The biopharma’s Adzynma, a human recombinant ADAMST13 therapeutic, is the first approved therapy for the ultra-rare clotting disorder congenital thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.
Over the next two weeks, the FDA is set to decide on New Drug Applications from Pacira, CorMedix and Aldeyra and hold an advisory committee meeting for two overdue confirmatory trials from Acrotech.