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Disc Medicine’s leadership tried to express optimism that its rare disease therapy bitopertin can be approved based on a Phase 3 trial set to begin shortly. However, analysts are worried that the protocol was developed with former FDA leaders.
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The FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s mRNA-based flu vaccine is “part of a disturbing pattern” of moving regulatory goalposts, according to Clay Alspach, executive director of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines. Meanwhile, streamlined communications with regulators in other countries pave the way for rapid uptake of novel modalities.
The current state of political affairs in the U.S. does not bode well for the direction of that turn. The country is at real risk of losing its long-held lead in biotech innovation.
FDA
The FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s mRNA-based flu vaccine is part of a larger communications crisis unfolding at the agency over the past nine months that has also ensnarled Sarepta, Capricor, uniQure and many more.
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Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
The FDA issued a rare Refusal-to-File letter to Moderna over its mRNA-based influenza vaccine application, in an unusual move that sent the biotech’s shares tumbling.
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The coming flu season is the clearest indication yet that biopharma’s long-standing assumptions about predictability, prevention and portfolio structure are no longer guaranteed.
Executives from Eli Lilly, Merck and other companies foresee the FDA’s new onshoring proposal being anything from a bureaucratic waste of time to a transformative program that will eliminate inspection-related complete response letters.
New interim data from a Phase III trial puts the company on track to file for FDA approval next year in an indication that not only lacks a disease-modifying treatment but suffered significant setbacks after a patient died in a clinical trial for Sarepta’s investigational gene therapy.
In this deep dive, BioSpace investigates China’s rise as a biotech powerhouse.
Intellia earlier this year reported a similar grade 4 liver enzyme elevation associated with the gene therapy nexiguran ziclumeran, though analysts at BMO Capital Markets at the time brushed it off as a “non-concern.”
The takeover of its competitor, announced Sunday, could also bring some attention to Dyne Therapeutics, which has a similar RNA-based pipeline in rare muscle diseases.
Lynkuet is the first FDA-approved therapy that blocks both the neurokinin 1 and neurokinin 3 receptors to treat hot flashes.
ALS
The BioSpace 40 Under 40 winner opens up about his very personal career transformation from wealth management to biotech—and what it’s like to develop a drug for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia as a potential patient himself.
Last month, “historic positive results” from uniQure’s gene therapy snapped the Huntington’s community out of years of failure. As the biotech prepares to submit for FDA approval, BioSpace looks at four more candidates on the near horizon.
Pivotal results from uniQure’s gene therapy for Huntington’s disease have brought new light to patients who have known only disappointment in recent years—but one expert worries that communication of the results is creating “false expectations.”