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Executives from the three largest pharmacy benefit manager companies testified Tuesday before Congress that rising drug prices in the U.S. are due to pharma companies taking advantage of market exclusivities and excessive charges.
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As big pharmas including Takeda and Novo Nordisk flee the cell therapy space and smaller biotechs shutter their operations, these players are sticking around to take the modality as far as it can go.
This year has seen the approval of several first-in-class therapies for HAE, but in a fragmented space, experts question whether they will be enough to net their developers a significant share of the entrenched market.
The record-setting government shutdown was just the latest blow to the U.S. biopharma industry. When science funding becomes a casualty of political gridlock, we lose valuable talent, erode public trust and jeopardize our position as a global leader in innovation.
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Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced that the European Commission has approved KEYTRUDA, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, in combination with chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment, and then continued as monotherapy as adjuvant treatment after surgery for adults with locally advanced or early-stage triple-negative breast cancer at high risk of recurrence.
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Unpredictable communication and a lack of transparency are eroding the industry’s and the public’s trust. The FDA, experts agree, needs to take control of the narrative.
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Merck’s HIF-2α inhibitor Welireg has been approved by the FDA to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma after treatment with PD-1 or PD-L1 and VEGF-TKI-based therapies.
Despite pricing concerns for bluebird bio’s FDA-approved sickle cell disease gene therapy, the biotech has inked a deal with an unnamed commercial payer “representing approximately 100 million covered lives” in the U.S.
A week after securing FDA approval, a European Medicines Agency committee has endorsed Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics’ Casgevy for sickle cell disease and transfusion‑dependent beta thalassemia.
Amid falling COVID-19 revenues, Pfizer continues to invest in antibody-drug conjugates in a deal with Nona Biosciences worth $1 billion as its $43 billion Seagen buy closed on Thursday.
The regulator placed the clinical hold on the Chinese biotech’s trio of CAR-T cell therapy candidates after an inspection of its Durham, North Carolina manufacturing facility.
FDA
Despite the lack of a randomized clinical trial to support eflornithine’s efficacy, the regulator approved US WorldMeds’ oral maintenance treatment for high-risk neuroblastoma in adults and children.
At the urging of the Biden administration, Sanofi and AstraZeneca are pledging 230,000 additional doses of their respiratory syncytial virus infant immunization Beyfortus in January 2024.
The combination of Keytruda and an mRNA vaccine reduced the risk of death or relapse in patients with the most deadly form of skin cancer after three years in a Phase IIb study.
The Biden administration on Thursday said 48 drugs covered under Medicare’s Part B may be subject to inflation rebates in the first quarter of 2024 under the Inflation Reduction Act.
What needs to happen for funding in biopharma to bounce back? BioSpace’s Lori Ellis discusses the macroeconomic environment and biopharma funding outlook with venture capital guests Ansbert Gadicke, Martin Gershon and Mike Goguen.