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New guidelines from two leading medical associations suggest that efforts to reduce bad cholesterol should focus on maintaining low levels of two key lipoproteins. Big pharma is all in, looking to improve on the standard statins to help vanquish America’s number one killer: heart disease.
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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.
FDA
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health department has consistently touted radical transparency as being key to its mission. Recent instances—the FDA’s decision not to disclose the recipients of three Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers and FDA and CDC choices not to publish vaccine-related papers—call this intent into question.
In Salt Lake City, biotech founders new and seasoned reflect on ways to ride out the industry’s challenges, such as sending cold emails to investors and learning to address leadership weaknesses.
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The FDA has postponed its decision date for Regenxbio’s Hunter syndrome gene therapy to review additional longer-term clinical data for the asset.
Adaptive and Genentech first partnered in 2018 to advance T cell receptor-based therapies for cancer.
VantAI will use its machine learning capabilities to identify novel target-effector pairs that Halda can use in designing its bifunctional small-molecule drugs.
While the 10-fold increase in dose over injectable Wegovy has raised questions about the launch, Novo Nordisk has assured investors it has the manufacturing capacity to roll out oral semaglutide without restrictions on supply.
FDA
A draft copy of the Make America Healthy Again Commission’s latest report, obtained by Politico, focuses on vaccine-related injuries and expediting access to investigational medicines for children—even though the FDA has recently rejected several of them.
Waltham, Massachusetts–based Skyhawk Therapeutics has been collecting collaborations with larger companies in spades since launching in 2018.
Patients who are prescribed Wegovy or Ozempic can now use GoodRx to access the medications at just $499 a month if they skip insurance. This is not the first time Novo has partnered with a pharmacy to offer the blockbuster drugs.
Inclacumab, which Pfizer obtained in its 2022 acquisition of Global Blood Therapeutics, failed to significantly lower pain episodes in patients with sickle cell disease over the 48-week treatment period.
Kriya is advancing a host of gene therapies for a wide variety of chronic diseases, including geographic atrophy, trigeminal neuralgia and type 1 diabetes.
In Phase III studies, Tonmya showed significantly superior analgesic effects in patients with fibromyalgia versus placebo. The sublingual pill also led to better clinical outcomes.