News
In this episode of Denatured, you’ll hear from Jack Crawford, CEO of Demeetra, and Magnus Gustavsson, chief commercial officer at NorthX Biologics. We unpack the evolution of cell line development — CHO cells, targeted integration, transposases and the collaboration models speeding biologics from sequence to GMP.
FEATURED STORIES
Psychedelics are gaining momentum in depression, with one treating physician predicting that the drug class could “wipe out the SSRIs” if safety and durability hold up.
Saol Therapeutics is the latest biotech to resubmit for approval of a drug rejected under former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, following REGENXBIO and Replimune.
Even as FDA approvals for biologic therapies fell in the first half of 2026, regulatory experts are optimistic about a turnaround in the rare disease space after the departure of key leaders at the agency. Still, there will continue to be tension between science and politics.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
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.
THE LATEST
Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a rolling biologics license application with the FDA for povetacicept in IgA nephropathy. With new data from RAINIER, the biotech expects to complete its submission by the end of March.
Single-trial approvals are raising the bar on trial design and execution. The new paradigm is pushing sponsors to plan earlier, step up their data and risk‑based quality management and use modeling and AI to generate one compelling, regulator‑ready evidence package.
Industry groups have identified upfront costs as a barrier to streamlining U.S. drugmaking. The nonprofit API Innovation Center has a proposed answer for how to tilt finances in favor of investments in continuous manufacturing.
AbbVie’s foray into the obesity space is successful so far, analysts agree, as amylin analog ABBV-295 elicited as much as 9.73% weight loss at 13 weeks in the multiple ascending dose portion of a Phase 1 trial.
The companies have been embroiled in a row about compounded GLP-1 drugs that escalated to a lawsuit last month. The legal action has now been dropped and the former adversaries have struck a deal that could increase access to Novo’s obesity medicines.
Hansoh’s olatorepatide achieved 19% weight loss at 48 weeks in a Phase 3 trial in China, handing partner Regeneron a glimmer of hope for a pipeline in desperate need of reinvigoration.
Roche’s shares tumbled nearly 5% on news that a key pillar in the five-pronged clinical plan for the breast cancer asset giredestrant was unsuccessful.
Azetukalner, a Kv7 potassium channel opener, reduced the frequency of focal onset seizures by a placebo-adjusted rate of 42.7%. Xenon Pharmaceuticals believes this is the highest such efficacy “observed in a pivotal epilepsy study,” CEO Ian Mortimer said Monday.
Ipsen will withdraw Tazverik’s follicular lymphoma and epithelioid sarcoma indications as emerging data point to an elevated safety risk in patients undergoing treatment.
The FDA’s cancer advisors will discuss AstraZeneca’s application for the oral SERD camizestrant in breast cancer and the AKT inhibitor Truqap in prostate cancer.