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After years of suffering from a bear market and more than 14 months of geopolitical turmoil shaking the macroenvironment, biotech appears to be moving on.
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New guidelines from two leading medical associations suggest that efforts to reduce bad cholesterol should focus on maintaining low levels of two key lipoproteins. Big pharma is all in, looking to improve on the standard statins to help vanquish America’s number one killer: heart disease.
The FDA’s decision last year to make complete response letters public provides new insight into why therapies sometimes fail to get the regulatory greenlight. Analysts say the information could help sponsors refine their regulatory strategies.
The Department of Health and Human Services is spinning its wheels, unable to establish steady leadership at three major divisions—the CDC and the FDA’s two primary review units.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health department has consistently touted radical transparency as being key to its mission. Recent instances—the FDA’s decision not to disclose the recipients of three Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers and FDA and CDC choices not to publish vaccine-related papers—call this intent into question.
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In an internal memo, the World Health Organization signaled its support for anti-obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, which the agency decided against listing in 2023, the last time the Essential Medicines list was updated.
Like fellow Big Pharmas Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson, Amgen is urging the Trump administration to consider tax policy instead of tariffs to promote domestic pharma manufacturing.
Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks is confident that weight loss med Zepbound is gaining market share at the expense of Wegovy, even as its rival strikes deals with CVS and Hims & Hers pharmacies.
The new policy, revealed by the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, would make vaccines “less available and less affordable,” according to vaccine expert Paul Offit. It could also further complicate the picture for companies like Novavax.
Announcing first-quarter results, Biogen CEO Chris Viehbacher admitted that tariffs are “a new topic for us,” but said he does not expect major impacts—at least for 2025.
Global employee engagement fell two percentage points in 2024, according to Gallup, while BioSpace found that workforce sentiment decreased among biopharma professionals. Additionally, a recent BioSpace poll suggests engagement could continue to decline in 2025.
Jefferies analysts said Moderna’s first quarter was “in line,” with a miss on revenue offset by a beat on earnings per share.
According to CEO Daniel Vitt, clinical and disability-related outcomes are more relevant than brain volume change for drug development in multiple sclerosis.
To say, as CEO David Ricks did, that this was a good quarter, is an understatement. Mounjaro in diabetes brought in $3.84 billion for the quarter while Zepbound in weight loss booked $2.31 billion.
With Imaavy, J&J will go toe-to-toe with fellow Big Pharma AstraZeneca, which owns Soliris and Ultomiris.