News
Eli Lilly notches another win over Novo Nordisk, as Zepbound bests CagriSema in a head-to-head trial sponsored by Novo; The FDA kicked off Rare Disease Week, providing draft guidance on its new plausible mechanism pathway, while a bipartisan senate hearing on Thursday will focus on the authorization process for rare conditions; Another leadership change shakes up CDC; and Gilead acquires CAR T partner Arcellx for nearly $8 billion.
FEATURED STORIES
Corsera Health’s Chief Operating Officer Rena Denoncourt and CFO Meredith Kaya speak with BioSpace about the biotech’s mission and vision for the next generation of cardiovascular care.
Billions of dollars’ worth of cancer drugs are discarded each year. Manufacturers must refund Medicare for some of this waste. A data-driven approach offers a practical path to greater efficiency.
Sales of Merck’s longtime oncology blockbuster Keytruda will erode more starkly in about 2033 rather than 2029, predicts Bloomberg Intelligence, translating to some $22 billion more in revenue.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Following the FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s investigational mRNA flu vaccine last week, Commissioner Marty Makary faced questions from the U.S. president about the agency’s handling of vaccines. It’s a clear signal that the tension long brewing at the drug regulator has now gone all the way to the top.
THE LATEST
Price-negotiation provisions that are out of step with reality are discouraging funders and Big Pharma partners from investing in potentially transformative therapies. Fixing some of the unintended consequences of the IRA will clear the way for innovative medicines to reach patients in need.
Pemgarda has a standing emergency use authorization as a prophylaxis for immunocompromised patients, but FDA’s stringent requirements for antibody activity boxed out its potential use as a post-exposure treatment.
The treatment, called DB-OTO, is one of several early-stage gene therapies being developed to treat relatively straight-forward causes of genetic deafness.
The World Health Organization names antimicrobial resistance as one of the most urgent public health threats, but it remains an unattractive target for the pharmaceutical industry due to its weak profitability.
President Trump also refused to promise pharma execs that he would hamstring the IRA’s drug negotiation program.
Ctexli’s approval further entrenches Mirum as a leader in rare liver diseases, alongside its cornerstone product Livmarli and upcoming drug volixibat.
Drug development powered by artificial intelligence is countering incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act and making small molecules more attractive in the complex inflammatory & immunology disease space.
Around 300 FDA staffers laid off last week are being asked to return. So far, the Trump administration has terminated some 1,000 employees from the agency.
Non-opioid pain therapies are entering an unprecedented era, marked by the landmark FDA approval of Vertex’s Journavx and a growing number of alternative approaches. Their ultimate uptake, however, remains to be seen.
With the modality now in early clinical trials, experts say more efficiency, broader editing capabilities and delivery breakthroughs are needed to propel RNA editing to the next stage.