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While both Beam Therapeutics and Wave Life Sciences touted notable biomarker benefits for their respective alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency assets, analysts said that Beam might have the efficacy advantage as Wave’s drug hits an efficacy “ceiling.”
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Biotech is increasingly financed, governed and regulated as though it were a mature pharmaceutical industry rather than a discovery system built around scientific uncertainty. Structural changes are needed to sustain the sector’s strategic innovation.
BioSpace examines how the FDA approval of Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug Foundayo has ignited a key race with Novo Nordisk.
Nusano will bring a massive new radioisotope facility in Salt Lake City online by the end of the year, establishing a supply of starting materials for the next generation of radiopharmaceuticals.
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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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Vertex reported healthy revenue in its second quarter earnings report, though news of VX-993’s mid-stage trial results and lack of alignment with the FDA regarding an expanded label for Journavx tempered analyst reactions, sending the stock down 13%.
Praxis’ vormatrigine reduced seizures by 56.3%, an effect size that, according to analysts at Truist Securities, exceeds that of its closest competitors.
While the deaths occurred in patients who had been treated with Agios’ anemia treatment Pyrukynd, the biotech insisted in an SEC filing midday Monday that the drug’s risk-benefit profile remains unchanged.
In an open letter, 22 experts who designed and ran Replimune’s Phase III IGNYTE trial answered the FDA’s issues, as outlined in the complete response letter for the melanoma candidate RP1.
From innovation in manufacturing to more-flexible regulation and better communication with payers, much needs to happen to make CGTs commercially viable. But it is possible, experts agreed at a recent panel.
The primary focus in scaling up production should first be the adoption of lean manufacturing principles used in virtually every other industry.
According to reporting from multiple outlets, Richard Pazdur, head of the Oncology Center of Excellence at CDER, opposed the consensus opinion of CBER staff to approve the drug. Replimune’s stock has dropped precipitously since the rejection.
The company expects that the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination rate will be “maybe a couple of points lower” than the prior level of around 20% but that pricing and Comirnaty’s market share will hold steady.
The pivotal Phase II trial is testing Allogene’s CAR T candidate cemacabtagene ansegedleucel for large B-cell lymphoma. ALLO-647 was being used as a preparative lymphodepletion therapy.
Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services scrapped a previous proposal, from the Biden administration, to include anti-obesity medications in Medicare Part D coverage.