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IPO
After debuting on the public markets with $256.3 million and raking in an additional $472 million, Veradermics has emerged as one of biotech’s biggest post-IPO standouts. CEO Reid Waldman credits the weight loss craze for establishing consumer-driven channels.
FEATURED STORIES
Last month, the FDA launched TrialBlazer, intended to streamline the IND path and bring early clinical trials and medical innovation home to the U.S. It’s a start, but new agency leadership must see it through.
FDA
Significant leadership instability at the FDA—compounded by continued workforce attrition—led to a slight slowdown in overall regulatory productivity in the first half of this year, but the agency has been catching up of late.
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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If cell and gene therapy makers are going to achieve their mission to improve patients’ lives, the industry must come together to share information across stakeholders, from regulators to manufacturers to payers.
THE LATEST
The biopharma discontinued its late-stage study after an interim review found that its investigational treatment for immunoglobin A nephropathy did not achieve statistically significant improvement over placebo.
The company’s experimental lgG4 antibody met the primary endpoint in a late-stage study of the rare skin disease. AnaptysBio will submit an application to the FDA by the third quarter of 2024.
FDA
The regulator approved the combination of Pfizer’s Braftovi and Mektovi for the treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer in adult patients with a BRAF V600E mutation.
The Danish pharma announced Monday that it is buying a Phase III hypertension candidate from Singapore-based KBP Biosciences. It is Novo Nordisk’s third high-value purchase in as many months.
Patients in a late-stage trial treated with Eli Lilly’s GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist saw a 21.1% mean body weight reduction over 72 weeks following an intensive lifestyle intervention program.
A revised Paxlovid supply agreement with the U.S. government has pushed Pfizer to launch a “cost realignment” program including layoffs, though it is still unclear how many employees will be affected.
The first two weeks of October saw BMS’s $4.8 billion buyout of Mirati, Lilly’s $1.4 billion purchase of Point, Kyowa Kirin’s $387 million acquisition of Orchard and AbbVie’s $110 million Mitokinin deal.
The regulator’s approval of oral, once-daily etrasimod, to be marketed as Velsipity, was based on favorable Phase III safety and efficacy data showing significant clinical remission of ulcerative colitis.
Last year, the FDA declined to approve a drug that appears to reverse a rare and debilitating enzyme deficiency. Some experts say it’s emblematic of a need for more flexibility around therapeutics targeting rare diseases.
The biotech will pause its lirafugratinib program for a rare bile duct cancer to target a larger FGFR2-altered solid tumors population, citing the Inflation Reduction Act as a driving decision factor.