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Replimune is axing 144 employees at its Woburn headquarters and 80 at its Framingham manufacturing site. The cuts follow the FDA’s second rejection of the biotech’s advanced melanoma candidate.
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Doubling survival in pancreatic cancer, a long-fought rare disease approval, a massive IPO and ambitious biotech entrepreneurs have BioSpace Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong feeling upbeat about the biotech scene.
After Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug was rejected for a second time, CEO Sushil Patel slammed the FDA for failing to exercise regulatory flexibility, while other experts bemoaned the agency’s lack of consistency. With new safety guidelines for gene editing therapies, the FDA has taken a first step toward fixing both problems.
The Merck update, which will shed light on a $588 million bet to succeed Keytruda, is part of a roster of presentations that could shape the future of ADCs, protein degraders and KRAS-targeted therapies.
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Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy has a few months’ head start on Eli Lilly’s newly approved pill. While the Indianapolis pharma has come from behind the Danish rival in the weight loss space before, last time it clearly had the better drug.
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Non-opioid pain therapies are entering an unprecedented era, marked by the landmark FDA approval of Vertex’s Journavx and a growing number of alternative approaches. Their ultimate uptake, however, remains to be seen.
With the modality now in early clinical trials, experts say more efficiency, broader editing capabilities and delivery breakthroughs are needed to propel RNA editing to the next stage.
The proposed acquisition by global investment firms Carlyle and SK Capital Partners could net shareholders $3 per share plus potential CVR dollars and provide bluebird bio with primary capital to expand the commercial reach of its gene therapies.
Acelyrin earlier this month agreed to an all-stock merger with fellow immune player Alumis, with their combined cash tiding the combined company over until 2027.
The move comes weeks after Pfizer terminated its partnership with Sangamo Therapeutics for another hemophilia gene therapy.
Many of these unlawful and unauthorized shipments were explicitly tagged for compounding, according to a new analysis. Separately, a group of state attorneys general has raised concerns about the unsafe GLP-1 drugs finding their way to American consumers.
The postponed ACIP meeting comes barely a week after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, despite controversy regarding his anti-vaccine history.
The meeting, which will include Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla as the newly named board of directors’ chair, will reportedly cover key topics for the lobbying group, including the Inflation Reduction Act.
BridgeBio beat investor expectations with 1,028 unique prescriptions for ATTR-CM therapy Attruby, setting the company up to beat a 2025 sales consensus of $86 million.
Morale is low at the FDA, which was hit with layoffs this week following RFK Jr.’s confirmation. Biopharma leaders and agency insiders fear further workforce cuts could delay new medicines.