News
R&D spending across the global pharmaceutical sector climbed 1.5% in 2024, according to unreleased data from Evaluate Pharma.
FEATURED STORIES
This year saw lofty highs and devastating lows for neuroscience drug developers like Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and AbbVie, following the predictable pattern of successes and failures that characterizes this space.
Already established as cornerstone therapies in diabetes and obesity, GLP-1 receptor agonists also show potential in several other indications, including cancer, addiction and neurodegenerative diseases.
Novo Nordisk executives set a high bar for itself when it projected CagriSema could achieve 25% weight loss. When the GLP-1 combo didn’t hit that mark, investors reeled.
Job Trends
Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Arcus Biosciences, Inc. announced an amendment to their collaboration agreement and a separate equity investment by Gilead of $320 million in Arcus common stock at $21.00 per share.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
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.
THE LATEST
Pfizer’s discontinuation of danuglipron brings the company down to a single molecule in its obesity pipeline.
Vanda is criticizing the FDA’s restrictions on information companies can provide regarding off-label use of approved medicines.
Future Pak—whose acquisition offer was rejected by Vanda Pharmaceuticals last summer—is offering to buy Theratechnologies for an unsolicited $255 million. The Canadian biotech is under an exclusivity agreement with another yet-to-be-disclosed potential purchaser.
Leerink analysts warned that Kennedy’s remarks to FDA staff would likely be a negative for the biotech industry.
At the GenScript Biotech Global Forum 2025, industry leaders celebrated CAR T cell therapy achievements while discussing ongoing challenges in manufacturing, distribution, treatment center capacity, and global payment structures for cell and gene therapies.
AI is enabling the development of a next generation of drugs that can more precisely target cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues.
After the gutting of the Department of Health and Human Services, fears mount about the future direction of the FDA—with regulatory experts predicting delays in drug approvals and greater influence of political appointees.
Lined up for the FDA in the coming weeks are a cell-based gene therapy for a rare skin disease and two product expansions for Regeneron, one with partner Sanofi.
Health and Human Services employees aren’t the only ones out of work. Thousands of private-sector biopharma professionals lost their jobs in the first quarter.
As the biopharma industry grapples with the uncertain macro environment brought on by the new administration, CEOs, regulators and many others speak out.