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New mid-stage data from Biogen’s Ionis-partnered therapy diranersen served to both validate the tau hypothesis in Alzheimer’s disease and raise questions that could soon be elucidated by anti-tau candidates from Denali Therapeutics, Eisai and Eli Lilly.
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Biopharma is entering its second-quarter earnings season riding high on a wave of massive deals and venture capital flow, plus a clearing of regulatory and policy overhangs. What can industry watchers expect to hear on the upcoming investor calls?
Biogen touted an “unprecedented” drop in tau in a Phase 2 trial, backing the company’s decision to take diranersen to Phase 3 despite a missed primary endpoint and seemingly supporting the anti-tau approach.
As antibody-drug conjugates advance and move into earlier lines of treatment, drug developers have to build gentler therapies that don’t just extend survival but improve it.
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Congressional letters sent to the CEOs of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, BMS and AbbVie this week voicing concerns about the pharmas’ clinical trials in China highlight an ongoing discrepancy in how government and industry think about the rise of the Asian country’s biotech industry.
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FDA
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.
FDA
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.
Despite exceptional regional hubs and research strength, investors say Europe still needs more integrated incubators, smarter regulation and broader pools of patient capital to keep breakthrough companies growing at home.
Commitments in obesity- and diabetes-focused deals reached $22 billion in the first quarter of 2026—already eclipsing last year’s total of $20.3 billion, according to a new J.P. Morgan report.
After Revolution Medicines’ drug candidate doubled survival in a Phase 3 pancreatic cancer study, the biotech is hoping to attract more investor money, with new plans for a $2 billion stock and debt offering.
In recent months, Anthropic has been building more and more ties with the biopharma industry, including partnerships with Big Pharma companies such as Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and AbbVie.
The trend of fewer companies letting employees go, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, has continued. However, more employees were on the chopping block in Q1 2026 than in Q1 2025, due mainly to one company’s cuts.
In this whitepaper, BioSpace reviews the major trends impacting the CDMO sector and the evolving relationship between sponsors and providers. We examine the key qualities pharma and biotech should consider in CDMO selection, and how the macroeconomic and macrodevelopment factors affecting the space play a role in this selection.