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Johns Hopkins’ Thomas Hartung discusses how drug discovery and development will change under evolving regulatory policies that embrace AI technology as well as organoid and other non-animal models of human biology.
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The current state of political affairs in the U.S. does not bode well for the direction of that turn. The country is at real risk of losing its long-held lead in biotech innovation.
The FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s mRNA-based flu vaccine is part of a larger communications crisis unfolding at the agency over the past nine months that has also ensnarled Sarepta, Capricor, uniQure and many more.
The rare disease drugmaker is facing potential competitors for achondroplasia drug Voxzogo. Is a big M&A deal with two approved assets enough to maintain investor interest?
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The FDA issued a rare Refusal-to-File letter to Moderna over its mRNA-based influenza vaccine application, in an unusual move that sent the biotech’s shares tumbling.
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Another patient has died from acute liver failure after receiving Sarepta’s gene therapy for DMD ; After a quiet start to the year, M&A is back with one deal for a gene editing biotech reinvigorating that sector; and RFK Jr. installs a suite of new vaccine board members who share his skeptical views on vaccines.
Findings that U.S. companies can sue foreign rivals despite limited business operations in the country could dissuade drug developers from targeting the U.S. market, potentially benefiting domestic producers of biosimilars.
BioNTech said in 2022 that it faced “threats of a groundless patent infringement suit” from a company that was “unable to bring to market any product to help in the fight against COVID-19.” Now, the mRNA biotech is buying that very company.
Sanofi paid a more than 300% premium on its acquisition of Vigil Neuroscience, suggesting a fierce battle to seal the deal. Across biopharma, companies are sometimes willing to put it all on the line for the right buyout. Novartis’ recent acquisition of Regulus for $800 million upfront provides a case study.
The program will bring together experts from across the FDA for a team-based review, rather than having an application move across numerous offices within the agency before getting a yay or nay.
Nearly $30 million in tax incentive awards are expected to add 1,519 new life sciences jobs in Massachusetts, with about 52% of the positions spread over Boston and Cambridge. Vertex, which received the largest award, will create hundreds of roles in Boston.
Jefferies analysts said on Tuesday that Ventyx could leverage its mid-stage data for VTX3232 to position the oral drug candidate as a treatment for other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s.
The pending deal was rumored overnight after a report from the Financial Times, spurring analysts to speculate that if true, the entire gene editing space would see a boost at the markets.
Venclexta, when combined with azacitidine, elicited an overall survival benefit below 10% in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.
District Judge William Young, a nominee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, blasted the Trump administration’s NIH cuts as discriminatory and “bearing down on people of color because of their color.”