News
Alternatives to opioids are desperately needed to better treat moderate to severe acute pain, but to date, we’ve seen few novel analgesics hit the market.
FEATURED STORIES
LB Pharma needed $350 million to advance a promising schizophrenia candidate at a time when the biotech markets were locked up tight. Fortunately, it wasn’t CEO Heather Turner’s first rodeo.
Rare disease drug developers struggle to survive in a biopharma investment market that prioritizes large patient populations. Initiatives like the Orphan Therapeutics Accelerator are attempting to solve what CEO Craig Martin says is not a science problem, but a math problem.
Eli Lilly’s win in a head-to-head trial drove Novo Nordisk’s market cap to pre-Wegovy levels not long after the victor became the first pharma company to top a $1 trillion valuation. It seems one company can do no right, while the other can do no wrong.
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
Following the FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s investigational mRNA flu vaccine last week, Commissioner Marty Makary faced questions from the U.S. president about the agency’s handling of vaccines. It’s a clear signal that the tension long brewing at the drug regulator has now gone all the way to the top.
THE LATEST
The Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee voted 9-3 in favor of Alnylam’s patisiran on whether its benefits outweigh its risks for patients with cardiomyopathy induced by transthyretin amyloidosis.
The company plans to launch up to 15 new products and bring up to 50 new candidates to the clinic over the next five years as part of its growth plan, while scaling down COVID-19 manufacturing.
Following cases of hepatobiliary toxicity leading to liver decompensation, Eiger has decided to drop its Phase III LIMT-2 trial of peginterferon lambda in chronic hepatitis delta.
Continuing its clinical win streak, AbbVie’s Skyrizi showed signs of superiority against Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara in topline data from a head-to-head Phase III Crohn’s disease study.
Topline data for the company’s CRF1 antagonist crinecerfont showed a significant drop in daily glucocorticoid dose, while maintaining androgen control in adult patients with the genetic disorder.
The agency’s briefing document found Phase III results investigating patisiran’s effects versus placebo were “small, of questionable clinical meaningfulness, and may not be detectable by patients.”
Citing a challenging macro environment, 2seventy bio is launching a sweeping strategic reorganization that will see 40% of its staff laid off and CEO Nick Leschly stepping down.
As the Novartis generics and biosimilars division nears its spin-off, Sandoz has signed a commercialization agreement with Samsung Bioepis, gaining rights to the latter’s Stelara biosimilar.
Following a $540 million IPO in May, Acelyrin’s lead candidate izokibep failed to meet the primary endpoint in a Phase IIb/III study of patients with the chronic inflammatory skin condition.
The regulator Monday approved the companies’ supplemental Biologics License Applications for their respective mRNA shots formulated to more closely target currently circulating variants.