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After years of contraction, investors see biotech reentering a growth cycle driven by scientific progress, asset quality and renewed conviction in oncology, obesity and neuroscience innovation.
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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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Phacilitate’s annual event dawns as cell and gene therapies reach a new tipping point: the science has hit new heights just as regulatory and government policies spark momentum and frustration.
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Terns Pharmaceuticals will advance TERN-601 into Phase II after early-stage data showed the oral therapy led to weight loss of 4.9%, comparable with weight loss pills Lilly and Pfizer are developing, according to analysts.
Set to start in 2025, Relay Therapeutics is moving toward a pivotal study of experimental treatment RLY-2608 in heavily pretreated locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
GSK’s twice-yearly depemokimab reduced asthma attacks by half and cut clinic visits by nearly three-quarters, positioning it for an estimated $4 billion in peak sales if approved.
In advanced non-small cell lung cancer, Summit Therapeutics’ ivonescimab appears to be 49% more effective at reducing the risk of disease progression or death versus Merck’s Keytruda in a late-stage study. However, analysts contend the caveat is that the trial was conducted in an entirely Chinese patient population.
Follow-up data from the MARIPOSA study show a favorable overall survival trend versus Tagrisso in EGFR-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The findings come just weeks after the Rybrevant-Lazcluze combination was approved for the first-line treatment.
Using a computational biomarker, the companies say they can identify which patients would derive significant clinical benefit from their experimental antibody-drug conjugate. AstraZeneca and Roche are co-developing and commercializing a companion diagnostic for the biomarker.
Bispecific antibodies and anti-TIGIT therapies both appear to be writing comeback stories as cancer experts head to Barcelona for the 2024 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress. Radioligand therapies and synthetic lethality assets are also attracting attention.
As Congress considers a bill that aims to distance U.S. biopharma from five Chinese companies, the industry must emphasize the importance of prioritizing patient care over power plays.
The next generation of Alzheimer’s therapeutics is moving away from amyloid plaques and tau tangles, offering multiple approaches to slow cognitive decline.
Astellas Pharma’s new life sciences center houses its first U.S.-based SakuLab, an incubator space for external partners, as well as its engineered small molecules unit.