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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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Orforglipron, Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug, is under FDA review with a decision expected in April. The pharma has also filed for marketing authorization for the pill in China.
Among the unreported adverse events potentially linked to Ozempic are two deaths and one case of “completed suicide,” according to an FDA inspection report.
Capricor Therapeutics’ deramiocel was rejected in July 2025, potentially caught between Nicole Verdun, a former top biologics regulator at the FDA, and outgoing Vinay Prasad, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
The U.S. Senate has a plan to improve drug development for rare disease patients. The exit of controversial CBER chief Vinay Prasad will help clear the path.
Rare disease biotech stocks pop on the news that Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s chief biologics regulator, will depart the FDA at the end of April; Sen. Ron Johnson launches an investigation into recent rare disease drug rejections; and Roche and Zealand’s amylin analog fails to match investor expectations—and Eli Lilly’s rival candidate—in a mid-stage trial.
Whether happening in public or private, biopharma M&A is fiercer than ever. Experts point to patent pressures, herd mentality and a declining stock of available biotechs with mature assets.
The senator, who has long advocated for expanding access to experimental therapies, reportedly called the FDA’s request for a sham surgery–controlled Phase 3 trial for uniQure’s Huntington’s disease gene therapy “bureaucratic idiocy.”
Industry and FDA representatives have reached a general agreement on planned pre-submission facility meetings but have expressed different views about the specifics.
The move comes as BioNTech shifts to being a multiproduct commercial biotech, allowing Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci to transition back into research on next-generation mRNA therapeutics.
Analysts expect the market for manufacturing cell and gene therapies, worth less than $20 billion in 2024, to expand rapidly as approvals drive higher volumes of production.