News
After years of suffering from a bear market and more than 14 months of geopolitical turmoil shaking the macroenvironment, biotech appears to be moving on.
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New guidelines from two leading medical associations suggest that efforts to reduce bad cholesterol should focus on maintaining low levels of two key lipoproteins. Big pharma is all in, looking to improve on the standard statins to help vanquish America’s number one killer: heart disease.
The FDA’s decision last year to make complete response letters public provides new insight into why therapies sometimes fail to get the regulatory greenlight. Analysts say the information could help sponsors refine their regulatory strategies.
The Department of Health and Human Services is spinning its wheels, unable to establish steady leadership at three major divisions—the CDC and the FDA’s two primary review units.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health department has consistently touted radical transparency as being key to its mission. Recent instances—the FDA’s decision not to disclose the recipients of three Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers and FDA and CDC choices not to publish vaccine-related papers—call this intent into question.
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The regulator greenlit 55 new drugs last year, seven of which belonged to Pfizer, including an ulcerative colitis treatment and a migraine nasal spray—both acquired in multibillion-dollar buys.
Patients treated with Longboard Pharmaceuticals’ bexicaserin saw a 32.5% drop in the frequency of countable motor seizures relative to placebo in a Phase 1b/IIa study. The company’s shares soared 316% Tuesday on the news.
The antibody-drug conjugate market remains hot so far in 2024 with Tuesday’s collaboration and license agreement between Roche and MediLink Therapeutics to develop a next-generation ADC in oncology.
The Swiss pharma is looking to leverage Voyager Therapeutics’ capsid technology for gene therapies aimed at treating Huntington’s disease and spinal muscular atrophy.
All three companies closed out the year, which saw significant growth in mergers and acquisitions, with high-value deals that could potentially set the tone for M&A in 2024.
Biopharmas of varying sizes—including larger companies like Amgen, Gilead and Pfizer—cut employees in 2023 to stay afloat.
Eli Lilly has signed a multi-year contract with animal genomics biotech Fauna Bio to use its artificial intelligence platform to discover drug targets for obesity in a deal worth nearly half a billion dollars.
Under the companies’ agreement, a previously disclosed option exercise fee of $75 million has been reduced to $10 million and the remaining pre-option development milestone has been removed.
GSK withdrew three patents related to its asthma inhalers while Impax delisted both of its patents for Adrenaclick and Kaléo delisted eight patents covering Auvi-Q—the companies’ respective epinephrine auto-injectors.
The acquisition announced on Friday will give Bristol Myers Squibb ownership of Karuna Therapeutics’ investigational antipsychotic KarXT, which is being tested for schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease psychosis.