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Despite comments made by a Novo Nordisk official this week, the company confirmed to BioSpace that it has no additional clinical trials of its GLP-1 drugs in addiction beyond a Phase II trial testing semaglutide and two other drugs with alcohol use as a secondary endpoint.
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The patient-specific nature of autologous cell therapies presents unique challenges that can best be addressed by a middle path between on-site and centralized manufacturing.
Some observers see risks to becoming over-reliant on local facilities, noting the potential need for trade partners if domestic production is disrupted.
After decades without much movement, a handful of new treatments for this rare autoimmune disease are now approved, and several companies, including argenx and Regeneron, have recently released promising late-stage trial results.
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Moderna, Inc. announced that clinical trial data from its research assay confirm its updated COVID-19 vaccine, which is pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the fall 2023 vaccination season, generates an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies in humans against BA.2.86, a variant under monitoring.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—along with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and CBER Director Vinay Prasad—argued against vaccine mandates, partly because they limited medical choice. This week, the FDA under their leadership approved updated COVID-19 vaccines with restrictions that do the same.
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The darlings of the weight loss and diabetes spaces, GLP-1 receptor agonists have shown promise against Alzheimer’s in recent studies—with Phase III results expected next year from Novo Nordisk.
The FDA’s year-end rush includes nine target action dates, mostly for rare disease and cancer therapies.
By speeding lifesaving drugs’ way to market and focusing on the underlying causes of disease, the pathway has helped save many lives.
The program has recently become controversial as a number of high-profile advanced approvals were granted only for the drugs to fail a confirmatory trial later on. Now, the FDA has clearly laid out expectations.
Protara is advancing a cell therapy that triggers both adaptive and innate antitumor immune responses, while CG Oncology’s approach makes use of an oncolytic immunotherapy that preferentially targets cancer cells and proliferates inside them, destroying them from the inside.
Eli Lilly is aggressively ramping up its manufacturing capacity for tirzepatide as compounding pharmacies continue to challenge an FDA decision to formally end the shortage of the obesity and diabetes drug.
It is not clear what specifically the new facility will produce, though Amgen could be ramping up its manufacturing capacity as it prepares to enter the obesity space with MariTide.
Iskra Reic will continue to serve as the pharma’s senior vice president for Vaccines and Immune Therapies as she steps in for Leon Wang, who was detained by Chinese authorities in November.
California-based biotech Nuvig Therapeutics scooped up $161 million from the investment arms of Sanofi, Bayer, Novo Holdings, BMS and others for its Fc fragment immunomodulator aimed at improving autoimmune dysregulation.
The Muna partnership will give GSK access to Muna’s MiND-MAP platform, which it will apply to postmortem brain samples to identify potential therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease.