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A surprising deal from Vertex Pharmaceuticals adds to Big Pharma’s acquisitive streak as Crinetics folds into the cystic fibrosis drugmaker. Meanwhile, IPOs and venture capital raises trend upward, but mostly for derisked companies. Plus, FDA decisions slow only slightly as the hunt for a permanent leader drags on.
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After debuting on the public markets with $256.3 million and raking in an additional $472 million, Veradermics has emerged as one of biotech’s biggest post-IPO standouts. CEO Reid Waldman credits the weight loss craze for establishing consumer-driven channels.
Molecular glue degraders are gaining traction in the clinic as well as funding from Big Pharma, with their potential to treat previously “undruggable” cancers and immunological diseases. Here are five clinical programs worth keeping an eye on.
Last month, the FDA launched TrialBlazer, intended to streamline the IND path and bring early clinical trials and medical innovation home to the U.S. It’s a start, but new agency leadership must see it through.
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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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In light of President Donald Trump’s impending pharma tariffs, several big companies have made massive manufacturing investments in the U.S., including Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. BMS is the latest to make a multibillion-dollar push.
Twenty attorneys general allege that the recent workforce reduction at the Department of Health and Human Services is unlawful and could have potentially irreversible consequences.
Vertex has recorded some 25,000 prescriptions for Journavx since its January approval and is in the process of getting big PBMs to cover the non-opioid pain drug.
The biotech’s Huntingtin-targeting molecule lowered blood levels of the protein and elicited functional improvements in earlier-stage patients, but results were not as robust in other biomarkers or with patients at later stages of the disease.
Bristol Myers Squibb has made significant cuts to its workforce since last year as part of a strategic reorganization aimed at saving $3.5 billion through 2027. The latest cuts in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, bring that area’s total number of disclosed cuts this year to 806.
BNT327, a PD-L1/VEGF therapy, is still currently being manufactured in China, but BioNTech is working to establish a diversified supply chain, executives said during the company’s Q1 investor call.
The cell and gene therapy space in recent months has hit several speedbumps, including layoffs, dropped drugs and discontinued partnerships.
The FDA accepted Novo Nordisk’s NDA for an oral formulation of Wegovy. The agency is expected to release its verdict on the drug in the fourth quarter of this year.
The FDA’s user free programs account for just under half of the agency’s budget—money that could be imperiled by the recent staffing exodus.
Beam Therapeutics and Verve Therapeutics have each built their lead candidates on a technique billed as a safer alternative to conventional CRISPR. Clinical results have so far been promising.