News

IPO
After debuting on the public markets with $256.3 million and raking in an additional $472 million, Veradermics has emerged as one of biotech’s biggest post-IPO standouts. CEO Reid Waldman credits the weight loss craze for establishing consumer-driven channels.
FEATURED STORIES
Last month, the FDA launched TrialBlazer, intended to streamline the IND path and bring early clinical trials and medical innovation home to the U.S. It’s a start, but new agency leadership must see it through.
FDA
Significant leadership instability at the FDA—compounded by continued workforce attrition—led to a slight slowdown in overall regulatory productivity in the first half of this year, but the agency has been catching up of late.
Congressional letters sent to the CEOs of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, BMS and AbbVie this week voicing concerns about the pharmas’ clinical trials in China highlight an ongoing discrepancy in how government and industry think about the rise of the Asian country’s biotech industry.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
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.
THE LATEST
Small Pharma announced positive top-line results Wednesday from a Phase IIa study evaluating a short-duration psychedelic for major depressive disorder.
Three venture capitalists debuted Dimension I Wednesday, a new fund with $350 million to fuel modern biotech.
FDA
The FDA’s approval of Biogen and Eisai’s Leqembi and subsequent decision not to approve Eli Lilly’s donanemab have sparked debate anew about the anti-amyloid theory in Alzheimer’s.
Merck posted a rare defeat Wednesday for its blockbuster Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in prostate cancer while simultaneously announcing a victory in biliary tract cancer.
A group of 25 senators, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), is requesting that HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra exercise march-in rights for Xtandi (enzalutamide), a prostate cancer therapeutic.
Cassava Sciences reported Phase II data from its Alzheimer’s candidate simufilam Tuesday. The company’s stock dropped 17% following the reveal.
Results from a study published in PNAS demonstrated that delivering therapeutics intranasally was sufficient to enhance functional recovery in rat models of ischemic stroke.
Research hasn’t shown that removing amyloid plaques alone improves function in Alzheimer’s patients, said Sharon L. Rogers, CEO of AmyriAD.
Axcella Therapeutics’ Long COVID fatigue therapeutic is moving forward as the company received guidance from the MHRA and filed an IND with the FDA seeking a Phase IIb/III trial.
After reporting promising interim findings from the Phase IIa INTEGRIS-IPF trial, Pliant Therapeutics commenced a public stock offering of $175 million.