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New data on Hengrui Pharma and Kailera Therapeutics’ investigational oral GLP-1 have validated the late-stage weight loss asset and paved the road for a regulatory submission in China, but analysts pointed to high rates of nausea and vomiting that could challenge the ongoing U.S. study.
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Molecular glue degraders are gaining traction in the clinic as well as funding from Big Pharma, with their potential to treat previously “undruggable” cancers and immunological diseases. Here are five clinical programs worth keeping an eye on.
Last month, the FDA launched TrialBlazer, intended to streamline the IND path and bring early clinical trials and medical innovation home to the U.S. It’s a start, but new agency leadership must see it through.
FDA
Significant leadership instability at the FDA—compounded by continued workforce attrition—led to a slight slowdown in overall regulatory productivity in the first half of this year, but the agency has been catching up of late.
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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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This year saw lofty highs and devastating lows for neuroscience drug developers like Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and AbbVie, following the predictable pattern of successes and failures that characterizes this space.
Already established as cornerstone therapies in diabetes and obesity, GLP-1 receptor agonists also show potential in several other indications, including cancer, addiction and neurodegenerative diseases.
Novo Nordisk executives set a high bar for itself when it projected CagriSema could achieve 25% weight loss. When the GLP-1 combo didn’t hit that mark, investors reeled.
Galectin’s shares tanked in premarket trading Friday after the biotech revealed its lead asset missed the primary endpoint for its Phase IIb/III trial for patients with a type of liver cirrhosis.
First approved in 2021, Jemperli has now become a cornerstone of GSK’s cancer business, earning more than $160 million in the third quarter.
Investors appeared disappointed by CagriSema’s Phase III readout, which showed weight loss that fell short of Novo Nordisk’s prior projections for the therapy. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly’s stock rose on the news.
Despite securing the industry’s first approval for familial chylomicronemia syndrome, BMO Capital Markets believes that Tryngolza’s regulatory triumph will not be a significant positive for Ionis. Instead, the firm is focusing on olezarsen’s readout in severe hypertriglyceridemia, a much larger market.
After a couple months of uncertainty, the FDA has told compounding pharmacies that they have 60 to 90 days before the agency will enforce rules to stop their production of GLP-1s.
The closures follow Novartis’s acquisition of MorphoSys earlier this year.
BioArctic received $100 million upfront with another $1.25 billion in potential milestone payments on the line for two pyroglutamate-amyloid-beta antibodies.