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After its next-generation obesity asset CagriSema lost a head-to-head matchup with Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, Novo Nordisk is throwing more money into the obesity space, striking a deal with Vivtex to advance novel weight loss pills.
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LB Pharma needed $350 million to advance a promising schizophrenia candidate at a time when the biotech markets were locked up tight. Fortunately, it wasn’t CEO Heather Turner’s first rodeo.
Rare disease drug developers struggle to survive in a biopharma investment market that prioritizes large patient populations. Initiatives like the Orphan Therapeutics Accelerator are attempting to solve what CEO Craig Martin says is not a science problem, but a math problem.
Eli Lilly’s win in a head-to-head trial drove Novo Nordisk’s market cap to pre-Wegovy levels not long after the victor became the first pharma company to top a $1 trillion valuation. It seems one company can do no right, while the other can do no wrong.
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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.
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Paul Offit, longtime member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee and an outspoken critic of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was recently informed by the Department of Health and Human Services that his services are no longer required.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals commits $45 million upfront to leverage Enlaza Therapeutics’ War-Lock platform to create drug conjugates and T cell engagers for autoimmune diseases and gentler conditioning for sickle cell/beta thalassemia gene-editing therapy Casgevy.
The French giant is gaining access to darovasertib, a small molecule protein kinase C inhibitor already in Phase II/III trials, with rights for the whole world besides the U.S.
Novartis is licensing ARO-SNCA, a preclinical siRNA therapy for synucleinopathies, a group of neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease.
The OMass partnership will boost Roche’s strategy in inflammatory bowel diseases, currently led by afimkibart, an anti-TL1A therapy the pharma obtained from its $7.1 billion acquisition of Telavant in 2023.
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy has been on a winning streak as of late, with a metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis approval last month and prime position in the oral obesity race.
While the approval of Leqembi Iqlik bodes well for Biogen and Eisai’s planned application for a subcutaneous induction regimen next year, its financial impact remains “uncertain,” as potentially higher revenues from the injection could be offset by steeper costs of production, according to Jefferies.
While Eli Lilly’s orforglipron is full speed ahead for a regulatory filing this year, the pharma is also pushing forward with one more Phase II study of naperiglipron, which uses the same scaffold as Pfizer’s failed obesity drugs danuglipron and lotiglipron.
Aside from the rare disease market, Novo Nordisk also scored a key regulatory win last month for its blockbuster GLP-1 drug Wegovy, which can now be used to treat patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.
After a demoralizing period punctuated by the withdrawal of one of the few marketed therapies for ALS, investment in new biotechs, state-backed collaborative initiatives and buzz at BIO2025 suggest a new day in drug development for one of medicine’s most intractable diseases.