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The vibe at BIO 2026 in San Diego last week was overwhelmingly positive, with attendees observing noticeable changes at the FDA and an uptick in dealmaking and IPOs. Plus, a top medical journal this week retracted a pivotal study for Amgen’s rare disease drug Tavneos, which has been in the FDA’s crosshairs since January.
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At the BIO International Convention in San Diego, attendees marked the 50th anniversary of original biotech Genentech, reflecting on the immense challenges facing companies as China becomes a powerhouse innovator.
A recent FDA reversal sparked new hope for patients with Huntington’s disease. Flying under the radar, Skyhawk Therapeutics revealed 12-month functional data from a midstage trial of its own candidate showing improvements on a key disease measurement scale.
Recent approvals for Corcept Therapeutics and Merck have injected momentum into the space, where GSK, Allarity Therapeutics, OSE Immunotherapies and others are advancing their own candidates.
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If cell and gene therapy makers are going to achieve their mission to improve patients’ lives, the industry must come together to share information across stakeholders, from regulators to manufacturers to payers.
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Summit Therapeutics planned an early interim progression-free survival readout for HARMONi-3 in the hope of enabling earlier regulatory engagement—but the early analysis delivered disappointment for the company and shareholders.
Veppanu, the first PROTAC therapy approved by the FDA, improved progression free survival by 43% versus AstraZeneca’s Faslodex but showed no such significant benefit in the intention-to-treat analysis.
Candid Therapeutics follows closely behind Neurona Therapeutics, which UCB acquired in mid-April in a potential $1.15 billion deal.
In its latest biopharma pipeline report, Deloitte warned that the growing importance of a small pool of potential mega-blockbusters raises the risk of “significant value destruction from a single program failure.”
The FDA is looking at a slew of label expansions this month, including one that could open up home-based treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
The new plant will give Novartis end-to-end capabilities centered on North Carolina, where it plans to have five facilities across three sites.
CEO Stéphane Bancel expressed confidence in Moderna’s first quarter, touting the revenue numbers as a sign of the company’s return to prosperity.
Amgen has launched a late-stage program to test the feasibility of switching patients from weekly GLP-1 injections to its own investigational obesity asset MariTide, which could open up monthly or more infrequent dosing schedules.
Alzheimer’s disease agitation could mean peak sales of over $2.1 billion for Axsome’s Auvelity, according to analysts at William Blair.
Corcept Therapeutics’ amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug was linked to an 87% reduction in the risk of death, a result the biotech hopes to replicate in an upcoming Phase 3 trial.