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After a sluggish 2025, biotech IPOs have roared back to life. Fueled by resilient stock performances and improving market sentiment, the total number of public debuts so far this year has already eclipsed 2025’s total.
FEATURED STORIES
As antibody-drug conjugates advance and move into earlier lines of treatment, drug developers have to build gentler therapies that don’t just extend survival but improve it.
FDA’s rare disease decisions are strongest when the patient community has a voice in advisory committee decisions.
The lineup at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference will provide critical insight into where the industry is headed with regard to targets being explored to vanquish the elusive neurodegenerative disease.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
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.
THE LATEST
FDA
Loqtorzi is the first programmed death receptor-1 from China to be approved by the U.S. regulator, and the first for patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma across all lines of treatment.
In a briefing document for Tuesday’s advisory committee meeting, the FDA raised concerns about the potential off-target effects of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics’ investigational gene edited therapy.
The Japanese pharma’s attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder candidate has shown significant symptom improvements in children and adolescents in two late-stage studies.
Merck and Novartis beat expectations this week with solid third-quarter financial results, while BMS, Sanofi and Takeda spooked investors with negative near- and mid-term projections.
The French drugmaker’s shares dropped more than 15% Friday morning on the announcement that it has abandoned its goal of a 32% operating profit margin for 2025, focusing on long-term profitability.
FDA
Following an FDA rejection and a previous discontinuation in psoriasis, Eli Lilly’s anti-IL-23 antibody has finally won an approval in ulcerative colitis, joining a crowded inflammatory bowel disease market.
The company’s blockbuster cancer asset Keytruda brought in more than $6.3 billion in the third quarter, a 17% increase from the same period last year, while bolstering its antibody-drug conjugate portfolio.
FDA
Santhera Pharmaceuticals and partner Catalyst Pharmaceuticals got the FDA’s greenlight for their Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Agamree, which is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2024.
The company on Thursday said it now expects more than $10 billion in new product sales in 2026, despite previously forecasting $10 billion to $13 billion in 2025.
With recent high-profile failures, experts say safety concerns and a lack of diversification are hindering the field—but still hold out hope for an approval.