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IPO
LB Pharma needed $350 million to advance a promising schizophrenia candidate at a time when the biotech markets were locked up tight. Fortunately, it wasn’t CEO Heather Turner’s first rodeo.
Rare disease drug developers struggle to survive in a biopharma investment market that prioritizes large patient populations. Initiatives like the Orphan Therapeutics Accelerator are attempting to solve what CEO Craig Martin says is not a science problem, but a math problem.
Eli Lilly’s win in a head-to-head trial drove Novo Nordisk’s market cap to pre-Wegovy levels not long after the victor became the first pharma company to top a $1 trillion valuation. It seems one company can do no right, while the other can do no wrong.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
FDA
Following the FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s investigational mRNA flu vaccine last week, Commissioner Marty Makary faced questions from the U.S. president about the agency’s handling of vaccines. It’s a clear signal that the tension long brewing at the drug regulator has now gone all the way to the top.
THE LATEST
Three executives whose combined careers include working at companies including Amgen, AstraZeneca, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Takeda share their career journeys.
After completing a buyout transaction with The Column Group to remove it from the stock exchange, NGM Bio has raised a $122M Series A to fund a registrational study for a rare liver disease drug and a Phase II trial in hyperemesis gravidarum.
Mid-stage data for 4D Molecular Therapeutics’ wet AMD drug 4D-150 show improvements in visual acuity, reduced injection rate and encouraging safety data.

After nixing a twice-daily version of its oral GLP-1 agonist, Pfizer is hoping to break into the weight-loss space with a once-daily version, but experts question its outlook.
As the yearslong litigation over ownership of CRISPR gene editing continues, investors have forged ahead with funding the technology’s development by biopharma.
Roche’s oral GLP-1 receptor agonist CT-996—obtained in the $2.7 billion acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics—reduced body weight by more than 6% at four weeks versus placebo in a Phase I trial.
As scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers mounts, a House committee will hold a hearing on the alleged anticompetitive business practices of these middlemen.
IRA
AstraZeneca joins Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb in appealing a previous legal loss for its challenge to the government’s drug price-setting program.
Citing the need for another human factor study and more technical data for the final product, the FDA denied approval of Orexo’s nasal spray rescue medication for opioid overdose.
Pfizer selects its candidate for the oral GLP-1 race as Eli Lilly strives to overtake Novo Nordisk in the injectable weight-loss drug space. Meanwhile, pressure builds to reduce drug prices in the U.S.