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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.
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 mixed data from the Phase III COAST 2 trial follows an underwhelming data drop from COAST 1 in September that Leerink Partners said “fell well below expectations.”
The $1.2 trillion budget package will now move to the Senate, which is expected to hold a vote next week.
The FDA’s rare pediatric disease priority review voucher program missed reauthorization at the last minute in 2024; advocates have been fighting to get it back ever since.
Corxel will use the fundraising proceeds to advance the oral GLP-1 therapy CX11 through mid-stage development in the U.S., as well as prepare for its Phase III studies.
Growing opposition to vaccines in the U.S., driven by recent government policy changes, makes it difficult to see a return on investment in vaccine development, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said this week.
“I don’t like established science,” ACIP chairperson Kirk Milhoan said in an interview on the Why Should I Trust You? podcast. “Science is what I observe.”
The partnership will allow BMS to advance a T cell–based therapy that is only activated once in the vicinity of a tumor.
The U.S. regulator shared the roadmap for implementing the program, first proposed in August 2025, and teased changes made in response to industry feedback.
The company also stands to gain from recent regulatory FDA guidance aimed at streamlining the development of non-opioid painkillers, Jefferies analysts suggested.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that the main thing getting in the way of changing vaccine discussions in the U.S. is the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.