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The FDA greenlit 26 novel therapies in the first half of 2026, including four for cancer and six for orphan indications. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson took home a combined 11 of the agency’s 79 total approvals, including supplemental nods.
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Even as FDA approvals for biologic therapies fell in the first half of 2026, regulatory experts are optimistic about a turnaround in the rare disease space after the departure of key leaders at the agency. Still, there will continue to be tension between science and politics.
Early-stage financing rounds are on track to hit their lowest dollar value in years as funders continue to eschew risky investments, experts told BioSpace.
A mostly black box since emerging with more than a billion dollars in hand, Xaira Therapeutics is slowly pulling back the curtain, revealing plans to find partners and validate its pipeline.
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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.
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Veppanu, the first PROTAC therapy approved by the FDA, improved progression free survival by 43% versus AstraZeneca’s Faslodex but showed no such significant benefit in the intention-to-treat analysis.
Candid Therapeutics follows closely behind Neurona Therapeutics, which UCB acquired in mid-April in a potential $1.15 billion deal.
In its latest biopharma pipeline report, Deloitte warned that the growing importance of a small pool of potential mega-blockbusters raises the risk of “significant value destruction from a single program failure.”
The FDA is looking at a slew of label expansions this month, including one that could open up home-based treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
The new plant will give Novartis end-to-end capabilities centered on North Carolina, where it plans to have five facilities across three sites.
CEO Stéphane Bancel expressed confidence in Moderna’s first quarter, touting the revenue numbers as a sign of the company’s return to prosperity.
Amgen has launched a late-stage program to test the feasibility of switching patients from weekly GLP-1 injections to its own investigational obesity asset MariTide, which could open up monthly or more infrequent dosing schedules.
Alzheimer’s disease agitation could mean peak sales of over $2.1 billion for Axsome’s Auvelity, according to analysts at William Blair.
Corcept Therapeutics’ amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug was linked to an 87% reduction in the risk of death, a result the biotech hopes to replicate in an upcoming Phase 3 trial.
Katherine Szarama, who has served as Prasad’s deputy at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research since December, joins a long list of temporary leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services.