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The FDA approval of the siRNA drug Redemplo caps off a tumultuous 12 months for Arrowhead, whose partnership with Sarepta caused its own stock to drop during the gene therapy maker’s safety troubles this summer.
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Mergers and acquisitions are not just for Big Pharma. A new report from Leerink Partners takes a stab at identifying the small- to mid-cap pharmas best prepared to bolster their pipelines with a buyout.
The coming flu season is the clearest indication yet that biopharma’s long-standing assumptions about predictability, prevention and portfolio structure are no longer guaranteed.
Executives from Eli Lilly, Merck and other companies foresee the FDA’s new onshoring proposal being anything from a bureaucratic waste of time to a transformative program that will eliminate inspection-related complete response letters.
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The headcount reduction will save money that the company will use in developing mavorixafor, its CXCR4 antagonist that last year received FDA approval to treat WHIM syndrome, in the larger patient population with chronic neutropenia.
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Scaling GLP-1 manufacturing capacity remains a key priority for the pharma industry, to help supply catch up with the insatiable demand for weight loss drugs.
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FDA
The appointment of Richard Pazdur, currently director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, comes less than a week after he reportedly declined the post, and just nine days after his predecessor’s controversial exit.
Data presented at this year’s American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in New Orleans underline rapid advancements in the cardiovascular field.
The mid-stage failure was unexpected to analysts at BMO Capital Markets, who viewed ‘770 as mostly derisked given its similar mechanism of action to Johnson & Johnson’s Spravato.
Cogent Biosciences expects to file a new drug application for bezuclastinib in gastrointestinal stromal tumors early next year after what Leerink said was “the first positive trial in this disease in over a decade.”
Representatives from companies such as Sanofi and Forge Biologics point to the potential for PreCheck to drive activation of idle production capacity and help companies that are already building plants.
Kezar Life Sciences suffered multiple clinical holds and four patient deaths in a trial testing zetomipzomib for lupus—a program that has since been canned. The company is still pursuing development in autoimmune hepatitis, but recent FDA communications could delay its timeline.
FDA
After a leading study caused the FDA to slap its most stringent warning on hormone replacement therapies for menopause more than two decades ago, the regulator is changing course in what FDA Commissioner Marty Makary called a “historic day for women in the United States.”
The White House may have struck a deal with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk last week to lower the costs of their weight loss drugs for patients, but knockoff versions of Zepbound and Wegovy still permeate the obesity market.
MeiraGTx Holdings is licensing a genetic eye disease medicine to Eli Lilly in a deal worth up to $475 million.
Ionis is planning a supplemental submission by the end of the year to expand Tryngolza into severe hypertriglyceridemia. If granted, William Blair expects the antisense drug to be “transformational” for this indication.