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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.
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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.
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Shares were up over 60% in premarket trading on news that the company’s anti-FcRn antibody exhibited dose-dependent reductions in IgG levels, drivers of inflammation in many autoimmune diseases.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a need for local production of vaccines. Now, German pharma company BioNTech has said it will start manufacturing vaccines in Africa.
The company’s olezarsen cleared a late-stage study, eliciting a sharp reduction in triglyceride levels in patients with familial chylomicronemia syndrome. Ionis plans to submit a New Drug Application to the FDA.
FDA
The FDA on Monday approved the Canadian biopharma’s liquid antibiotic metronidazole, an alternative for patients who are unable to use pills or injections.
The Japanese multinational pharma is pledging up to $580 million in a development and commercialization deal with AcuraStem for the latter’s PIKFYVE program for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The Swiss pharma is one step closer to bringing Lutathera into the front-line setting, with data from the Phase III NETTER-2 study showing that the radiotherapy met its primary endpoint.
The company’s experimental drug for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis reduced the risk of death by 49% compared to the largest U.S. database of previous ALS therapy trials.
The FDA’s briefing documents found that BrainStorm’s BLA submission for its investigational cell therapy for ALS did not demonstrate evidence of effectiveness and that the manufacturing data was “grossly deficient.”
After dropping an early-stage study more than a year ago, AbbVie has finally terminated its CD47 collaboration with I-Mab, leaving up to $1.3 billion in potential milestone payments on the table.
The losing streak continues for Merck and Eisai with their Keytruda-Lenvima combination failing to improve progression-free survival and overall survival in two late-stage lung cancer studies.