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A year of significant policy change at the FDA brought momentum and scrutiny into the new year. As 2026 gets underway, biopharma companies are responding to sweeping vaccine changes while concerns surface about the politicization of the agency.
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After Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug was rejected for a second time, CEO Sushil Patel slammed the FDA for failing to exercise regulatory flexibility, while other experts bemoaned the agency’s lack of consistency. With new safety guidelines for gene editing therapies, the FDA has taken a first step toward fixing both problems.
The Merck update, which will shed light on a $588 million bet to succeed Keytruda, is part of a roster of presentations that could shape the future of ADCs, protein degraders and KRAS-targeted therapies.
Gilead, AstraZeneca and Vertex have acquired more than just a therapeutic asset in recent deals. BioSpace takes a look at five recent transactions where the staff was the real centerpiece.
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Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy has a few months’ head start on Eli Lilly’s newly approved pill. While the Indianapolis pharma has come from behind the Danish rival in the weight loss space before, last time it clearly had the better drug.
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Novo Nordisk’s etavopivat elicited a 27% drop in vaso-occlusive crises and 48.7% hemoglobin response after 24 weeks, creating “separation amongst PK class candidates,” Truist analysts said on Monday. Novo plans to seek FDA approval in the back half of 2026.
Obesity-focused Kailera Therapeutics debuted on the Nasdaq Friday after raising a record $625 million, beating Moderna’s $600 million from 2018.
The pharma industry “own Congress, they own the media,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told lawmakers by way of explaining the bad press against FDA Commissioner Marty Makary following the second rejection of Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug.
More patients on Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide lost over 5% of their lean mass versus those on Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, according to a study that has yet to be peer reviewed.
In this episode of Denatured, you’ll be hearing from Edoardo Negroni, co-founder & managing partner at AurorA-TT and Naveed Siddiqi, senior partner, Venture Investments at Novo Holdings. We debate whether Europe’s world-class science can be matched by a truly integrated venture ecosystem—and what it would take, in practice, to get there.
Erica Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general and member of the U.S. military, will take over from what has amounted to a rapid succession of CDC leaders over the past year.
Greater transparency in FDA decision-making was possibly the most common theme for stakeholders interviewed by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review in a new report focused on strengthening the agency’s accelerated approval program.
With Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declaring himself “a big fan of peptides,” the FDA has arranged an advisory committee to discuss allowing compounders to make molecules despite earlier safety concerns.
J&J will hand over the rights to bota-vec for $25 million upfront, clearing MeiraGTx to seek regulatory approvals in the U.S. and EU in 2027.
Right after the FDA flagged safety concerns for Eli Lilly’s newly approved obesity pill, the pharma posted diabetes data demonstrating a clean safety profile and revealed plans to seek approval in the indication.