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The FDA greenlit 26 novel therapies in the first half of 2026, including four for cancer and six for orphan indications. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson took home a combined 11 of the agency’s 79 total approvals, including supplemental nods.
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Even as FDA approvals for biologic therapies fell in the first half of 2026, regulatory experts are optimistic about a turnaround in the rare disease space after the departure of key leaders at the agency. Still, there will continue to be tension between science and politics.
Early-stage financing rounds are on track to hit their lowest dollar value in years as funders continue to eschew risky investments, experts told BioSpace.
A mostly black box since emerging with more than a billion dollars in hand, Xaira Therapeutics is slowly pulling back the curtain, revealing plans to find partners and validate its pipeline.
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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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The FDA approved the expansion of Casgevy, which had previously been greenlit for patients 12 and up, into a younger pediatric population under the agency’s Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program.
Ipsen is penning its second acquisition of the week, this time securing Memo Therapeutics and its midstage monoclonal antibody in a deal that could approach $800 million.
The approval of Tregzi—the first regulatory greenlight for Orca Bio—was based on a Phase 3 study in which patients on the therapy were twice as likely to survive without cancer relapse and without chronic GVHD compared with conventional allogeneic transplant.
Teams at facilities being developed by Eli Lilly, Regeneron and other companies will receive early technical guidance and additional perks from the FDA.
Despite the late-stage fail, Vistagen will nevertheless continue to push its drug candidate forward and meet with the FDA to align on a potential registrational path.
Sarepta Therapeutics is seeking to convert the accelerated approval of its therapeutic exon-skippers for Duchenne muscular dystrophy to full despite the drugs’ failure to improve motor function in a confirmatory trial.
The vibe at BIO 2026 in San Diego last week was overwhelmingly positive, with attendees observing noticeable changes at the FDA and an uptick in dealmaking and IPOs. Plus, a top medical journal this week retracted a pivotal study for Amgen’s rare disease drug Tavneos, which has been in the FDA’s crosshairs since January.
The U.K.’s core biotech cluster continues to produce world‑class science, but investors say limited talent mobility, uneven regional growth and tightening early‑ and mid‑stage capital are slowing the country’s ability to scale new companies.
Innovation drives CROs to win new business, but unchecked customization creates complexity that undermines reproducibility, weakens renewals and leads to turnover—making standardization a strategic necessity, not a constraint.
The 2022 search approach is no longer working. Companies need to think critically about how they are acquiring top regulatory, clinical and commercial executives or risk their programs in this new regulatory and market reality.