News
Roche’s obesity candidate achieves 22.5% weight loss in Phase II; Moderna pulls the plug on late-stage vaccine trials as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine policies and rhetoric continues; and embattled gene therapy maker Sarepta announces new data in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
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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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Acadia Pharmaceuticals is terminating development of its antipsychotic drug pimavanserin, which did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement over placebo in the late-stage study’s primary endpoint.
Alkermes spun off its oncology business in late 2023 to become a pure-play neuroscience company, while Jazz Pharmaceuticals continues to invest in and focus on both of its businesses.
Incyte’s povorcitinib met both primary and secondary endpoints to relieve itching and improve skin clearance by 16 weeks, suggesting efficacy that is competitive with Sanofi and Regeneron’s blockbuster Dupixent.
Boehringer Ingelheim has paid $27.3 million upfront to Sosei Heptares to develop a small molecule agonist of GPR52 to treat the positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia.
The Chinese biopharma company will be closing its U.S. headquarters and wet lab in the D.C. suburbs, according to scientists who recently lost their jobs.
With Monday’s FDA rejection of their long-acting glatiramer acetate formulation, Viatris and Mapi Pharma continue the biopharma industry’s recent losing streak in multiple sclerosis.
Early Phase IIb data from 66 patients showed Novartis’ BTK inhibitor remibrutinib has potential outside chronic spontaneous urticaria, leading to symptomatic relief in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa.
Fresh off its $259 million Series C funding round, Alumis unveiled mid-stage data Saturday for its TYK2 inhibitor ESK-001 demonstrating strong symptomatic improvement in moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.
Johnson & Johnson’s Protagonist-partnered oral psoriasis candidate was able to sustain its therapeutic benefit through one year, according to data presented on Saturday at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting.
Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy was approved on Friday by the FDA to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke in adults who have cardiovascular disease and are obese or overweight.