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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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The total of 52 mergers and acquisitions for the first half of 2026 reflects what analysts, industry watchers and executives are saying over and over: M&A is back.
At the BIO International Convention in San Diego, attendees marked the 50th anniversary of original biotech Genentech, reflecting on the immense challenges facing companies as China becomes a powerhouse innovator.
A recent FDA reversal sparked new hope for patients with Huntington’s disease. Flying under the radar, Skyhawk Therapeutics revealed 12-month functional data from a midstage trial of its own candidate showing improvements on a key disease measurement scale.
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If cell and gene therapy makers are going to achieve their mission to improve patients’ lives, the industry must come together to share information across stakeholders, from regulators to manufacturers to payers.
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The EPIC Act has been proposed with bipartisan and industry support to give small molecule drugs the same protection against price negotiation as biologics, but concerns over how to balance the federal budget could prevent a short-term fix to the IRA.
The discontinuation caps off a turbulent development path for izokibep, which in September 2023 produced disappointing results from Phase IIb/III study in hidradenitis suppurativa that was found to have had dosing errors.
Around 25 companies have gone public this year, most of them in the early months. Most have tumbled from their original offer price.
By far, the largest acquisition of 2024 was Novo Holdings’ yet-to-be-closed buyout of manufacturer Catalent at $16.5 billion. Outside of that, the leading pharmaceutical companies kept to less than $5 billion per deal.
Ending the diagnostic journey for patients, particularly those with rare diseases, improves patients’ quality of life while reducing costs to healthcare systems.
With nearly 90% of patients showing no detectable cancer cells after treatment, J&J and Legend’s Carvykti could stave off competition from emerging CAR T therapies such as Gilead and Arcellx’s anito-cel.
BNT327, now in early-phase trials, is part of a class of drugs that could one day challenge Keytruda’s dominance. BioNTech obtained the candidate when it bought Biotheus last month in an acquisition deal that could reach up to $950 million.
GSK, Gilead and Arcellx, Vertex and more present new data at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting just as sickle cell therapies Casgevy and Lyfgenia have a new outcomes-based payment model; Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk pump new funds into manufacturing; and AbbVie makes a Cerevel comeback while uniQure clears a path toward accelerated approval in Huntington’s disease.
Carisma’s second workforce reduction this year likely leaves the company with 44 full-time employees as turns its focus to developing therapies for fibrosis, oncology and autoimmune diseases.
In a Type B meeting, the FDA signified that it will allow uniQure to use a natural history control, the composite Unified Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale, and neurofilament light chain levels to support the accelerated approval of its gene therapy AMT-130.