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The FDA greenlit 26 novel therapies in the first half of 2026, including four for cancer and six for orphan indications. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson took home a combined 11 of the agency’s 79 total approvals, including supplemental nods.
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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.
Early-stage financing rounds are on track to hit their lowest dollar value in years as funders continue to eschew risky investments, experts told BioSpace.
A mostly black box since emerging with more than a billion dollars in hand, Xaira Therapeutics is slowly pulling back the curtain, revealing plans to find partners and validate its pipeline.
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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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Roche said Monday that its bispecific T cell engager Columvi improved survival in a Phase III lymphoma trial, clearing the drugmaker to seek a full, expanded label that could drive sales growth.
Following cases of convulsions in rabbits in a preclinical study, the FDA has placed a clinical hold on Neumora Therapeutics’ Phase I schizophrenia drug candidate NMRA-266.
Roche’s Genentech subsidiary is terminating for undisclosed reasons its 2021 contract with Adaptimmune for the development of allogeneic T-cell therapeutics.
AbbVie’s small molecule drug Qulipta has durable benefits and can reduce migraine frequency through 48 weeks of follow-up, according to interim Phase III data released on Friday.
An FDA advisory committee on Friday agreed that using minimal residual disease could be a viable surrogate endpoint for accelerated approval for drug development in multiple myeloma.
After a years-long antitrust battle, the European Commission on Friday approved Illumina’s plans to divest Grail. However, Illumina said while there is “an agreement with the EC on specific divestment options” that “does not mean the method of divestment has been finalized.”
Investors were disappointed in data from a mid-stage study of Enlivex Therapeutics’ Allocetra cell therapy for the treatment of sepsis. The Israeli company is considering a follow-on trial in sepsis caused by urinary tract infection.
Experts are hopeful that objective biomarker measures for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, such as the ones being developed by EverythingALS, will lead to more targeted, effective treatments.
The European Medicines Agency on Friday said it found no evidence linking GLP-1 receptor agonists with suicidal thoughts and actions, following a review of patients taking Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide and liraglutide, and Eli Lilly’s dulaglutide and AstraZeneca’s exenatide.
The global contract development and manufacturing organization is investing $1.2 billion to boost production capabilities at its Holly Springs, North Carolina, site including mammalian cell culture bioreactors.