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The pharma industry “own Congress, they own the media,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told lawmakers by way of explaining the bad press against FDA Commissioner Marty Makary following the second rejection of Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug.
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Gilead, AstraZeneca and Vertex have acquired more than just a therapeutic asset in recent deals. BioSpace takes a look at five recent transactions where the staff was the real centerpiece.
BioSpace looks back at 2025 and where the FDA is going in 2026.
During the pharma earnings season, which begins on Tuesday, Novo Nordisk will report the first revenue numbers from an oral GLP-1 medicine, while other companies are expected to address the FDA, drug pricing and Trump’s new tariffs.
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Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy has a few months’ head start on Eli Lilly’s newly approved pill. While the Indianapolis pharma has come from behind the Danish rival in the weight loss space before, last time it clearly had the better drug.
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Industry groups have identified upfront costs as a barrier to streamlining U.S. drugmaking. The nonprofit API Innovation Center has a proposed answer for how to tilt finances in favor of investments in continuous manufacturing.
AbbVie’s foray into the obesity space is successful so far, analysts agree, as amylin analog ABBV-295 elicited as much as 9.73% weight loss at 13 weeks in the multiple ascending dose portion of a Phase 1 trial.
The companies have been embroiled in a row about compounded GLP-1 drugs that escalated to a lawsuit last month. The legal action has now been dropped and the former adversaries have struck a deal that could increase access to Novo’s obesity medicines.
Hansoh’s olatorepatide achieved 19% weight loss at 48 weeks in a Phase 3 trial in China, handing partner Regeneron a glimmer of hope for a pipeline in desperate need of reinvigoration.
Roche’s shares tumbled nearly 5% on news that a key pillar in the five-pronged clinical plan for the breast cancer asset giredestrant was unsuccessful.
Azetukalner, a Kv7 potassium channel opener, reduced the frequency of focal onset seizures by a placebo-adjusted rate of 42.7%. Xenon Pharmaceuticals believes this is the highest such efficacy “observed in a pivotal epilepsy study,” CEO Ian Mortimer said Monday.
Ipsen will withdraw Tazverik’s follicular lymphoma and epithelioid sarcoma indications as emerging data point to an elevated safety risk in patients undergoing treatment.
The FDA’s cancer advisors will discuss AstraZeneca’s application for the oral SERD camizestrant in breast cancer and the AKT inhibitor Truqap in prostate cancer.
Some biotechs that had seen regulatory setbacks under Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research director Vinay Prasad experienced stock bumps Monday morning. Under Prasad’s leadership, the rare disease space has suffered a series of controversial rejections.
Incyte is looking to expand the use of its PD-1 blocker Zynyz to treat non-small cell lung cancer. The FDA’s rejection did not flag problems with the drug’s efficacy or safety.