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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.
FEATURED STORIES
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.
IPO
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.
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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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While the manufacturer is on the list of authorized GLP-1 importers, FDA inspectors found the company relabeled APIs from another site in a potential attempt to “circumvent safeguards.”
FDA veteran Richard Pazdur outlined his priorities for the next FDA commissioner but stopped short of putting himself forward as a candidate to lead the agency at an RBC Capital Markets event on Tuesday.
While the pathogen appears unlikely to trigger a pandemic, analysts see potential for Moderna to build goodwill amid a period of political pressure on vaccine manufacturers.
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.”
UCB’s Bimzelx elicited significantly stronger joint relief at 16 weeks than AbbVie’s Skyrizi in a Phase 3 head-to-head study of psoriatic arthritis.
FDA
Fallout from the resignation of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary continues as several other senior regulators are removed from their posts; pharma’s top paid CEOs make up to 358 times more than their employees; Revolution Medicine’s pancreatic cancer results highlight movement in the deadly disease space; more.
Clinical trial setbacks have limited the near-term opportunities for some of Daiichi Sankyo’s ADCs but the drug developer is betting near-term readouts will catapult it into the top tier of oncology companies in the coming years.
BioSpace analyzed the pay ratio across 10 major pharmaceutical companies to determine which CEOs were paid the most relative to typical employees. J&J, Eli Lilly and Pfizer once again topped the list.
Analysts are extremely encouraged by Phase 2 trial results for Relay Therapeutics’ PI3KA inhibitor in treating vascular malformations (VM), prompting the biotech to eye a potential path to accelerated approval.
Far fewer companies are letting employees go so far in 2026 compared to 2025, but the number of people affected is trending up, especially this month, according to BioSpace tallies.