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This year has seen the approval of several first-in-class therapies for HAE, but in a fragmented space, experts question whether they will be enough to net their developers a significant share of the entrenched market.
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The drugmaker’s dominance of the obesity market is fueling predictions that years of growth lie ahead.
Novo Nordisk goes “on the offensive” following Trump deal that also included rival Eli Lilly, putting an exclamation point on rapidly declining GLP-1 drug prices. Experts say the unusual situation makes it hard to predict what’s next.
Drug candidates don’t usually move among Big Pharma, but these five biotechs helped facilitate such hand-offs, scooping up assets from one pharma on the cheap before being bought out for billions by another.
Job Trends
The number of biopharma professionals let go has increased year over year for three straight months. In July, as many as 8,000 people lost or were projected to lose their jobs, due largely to news that Merck projects to cut roughly 6,000 employees as part of a multiyear process.
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Like they say about the weather in Iceland, if you don’t like an action taken by the new administration, wait five minutes; it’ll probably change. The markets, it seems, don’t react kindly to that kind of policymaking.
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A source familiar with the matter said the White House initially requested the resignation of Sanjula Jain-Nagpal, a policy and research official at the FDA.
Mixed headlines have plagued the cell and gene therapy space of late. We believe that a renewed case of optimism is not only warranted but essential if these therapies are to reach their full potential.
FDA
Since July, several biotechs have been forced to pivot as previous agreements with the FDA around evidence required for approval were reversed, a phenomenon that, according to experts, could portend a more restrictive regulator.
The regulator has received reports that a group of patients treated with Adzynma had neutralizing antibodies against the protein the therapy replaces.
After revoking Sarepta’s award in July and awarding one to Krystal last month, the FDA’s platform technology designation program appears to be back on track. These six biotechs could be on the regulator’s radar.
While expressing disappointment, William Blair analysts were unsurprised by the Phase II failure, having assigned the VISTA study a high level of risk given the “mixed” performance of a similar drug in a prior multiple sclerosis study.
After GSK subsidiary Tesaro filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that AnaptysBio breached “certain requirements” under their 2014 license agreement involving GSK’s Jemperli, Anaptys responded Friday morning.
Amid an aggressive savings push, Moderna has cut three assets and taken on a loan to increase “flexibility.”
A new analysis from Jefferies shows that drugs receiving breakthrough designations sail through the regulatory process more quickly, on top of frequently winning approval.
Aspen is now also considering the possibility of an initial public offering next year in an effort to bring its cell therapy to the market.