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In this episode of Denatured, Jennifer C. Smith-Parker speaks with RTW’s Rod Wong and Stephanie Sirota how shifting JPM deal timing masks record M&A potential; why oncology, obesity, psychedelics, and neuroscience are attracting fresh capital; and how “alpha stacking” shapes their investment edge in an age of chronic uncertainty. They cover topics discussed in RTW’s new book, “Innovation is the Best Medicine.”
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With the biopharma industry performing better of late, analysts, executives and other industry watchers are “cautiously optimistic”—a term heard all over the streets of San Francisco at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference earlier this month.
Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Merck are contributing drug ingredients as part of their deals with the White House but are keeping many of the terms of their agreements private.
Some 200 rare disease therapies are at risk of losing eligibility for a pediatric priority review voucher, a recent analysis by the Rare Disease Company Coalition shows. That could mean $4 billion in missed revenue for already cash-strapped biotechs.
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The FDA’s rare pediatric disease priority review voucher program missed reauthorization at the last minute in 2024; advocates have been fighting to get it back ever since.
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Currently, Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound (tirzepatide) are not on the FDA’s shortage list but compounded pharmacies are still making them. That’s unprecedented.
Alector is kicking off a resource realignment effort that will include a workforce reduction. The biotech expects its current cash position to last it through 2026.
Truqap’s positive clinical data comes after it failed a late-stage study in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. It helps AstraZeneca position itself as a top player in the prostate cancer space, alongside its Big Pharma colleagues.
While taldefgrobep alfa failed to show improved motor function in spinal muscular atrophy, treated patients saw a marked reduction in body fat. Biohaven plans to launch a Phase II trial in obesity by the end of the year.
Cassava Sciences has revealed the late-stage clinical failure of controversial Alzheimer’s drug simulfilam. The company had pledged to share the results whether “good, bad or ambiguous.”
The FDA has accepted Alnylam’s supplemental New Drug Application for Amvuttra on the heels of BridgeBio’s Attruby nod, potentially giving Pfizer’s tafamidis franchise another competitor.
Adcendo joins a growing group of biotechs working to usher the next generation of antibody-drug conjugates to the market.
Career conservative and former congressman Dave Weldon will, if confirmed, act as director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, where his anti-vaccine views will mesh with those of selected Department of Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Sage Therapeutics discontinued development of its lead candidate dalzanemdor after a third clinical failure, leading analysts to question the biotech’s future profitability.
With two decisions originally scheduled for this week already announced, including BridgeBio’s approval in ATTR-CM, the regulator has just one PDUFA on its plate this holiday week.