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If ultimately confirmed, Makary’s planned departure, broken by The Wall Street Journal Friday afternoon, would follow a controversial tenure in which his deputy and constant co-author Vinay Prasad riled biopharma feathers with myriad unexpected drug rejections. Prasad stepped down as biologics chief last week.
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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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Following a Phase II review, Novartis has cut the development of a gene therapy candidate for geographic atrophy. In June, the company sold a dry eye disease drug to Bauch + Lomb for $1.75 billion.
The California pharma is building up to its first-ever approval with promising late-stage data for its once-daily investigational acromegaly pill paltusotine, an alternative to the injectable standard of care.
The first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate—in combination with Merck’s Keytruda—has shown promising results in a Phase II study of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.
After its prostate cancer therapy was not included in Medicare’s initial drug price negotiation list, Astellas dismissed its Inflation Reduction Act lawsuit this week, while Illumina got new leadership.
With a potential combined market value of $30 billion, BioSpace takes a deep dive into the Phase III data supporting Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi and Eli Lilly’s investigational donanemab.
Seeking to deepen its neurology and rare disease pipelines, AstraZeneca’s Alexion has joined forces with Verge Genomics to leverage its artificial intelligence platform in drug discovery and development.
The companies have started a collaboration worth up to $3.4 billion to develop a portfolio of degrader-antibody conjugates, a potentially new class of antibodies that selectively kill cancer cells.
To build its ophthalmology portfolio, Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceuticals has teamed with RNA editing biotech Shape Therapeutics to develop adeno-associated virus gene therapies for ocular diseases.
Analysts said CymaBay’s seladelpar is emerging as the “therapy of choice in the second-line setting” and “could impact the treatment landscape” across a spectrum of primary biliary cholangitis patients.
After a three-month delay, GSK expects an FDA verdict for its myelofibrosis candidate, while Alnylam gears up for an advisory committee meeting discussing patisiran in cardiomyopathy of ATTR amyloidosis.