News
When Doug Ingram became Sarepta Therapeutics’ CEO in 2017, he didn’t have a connection to muscular dystrophy, but he has developed a fierce passion for the therapeutic area. He will step aside from his role to dedicate more time to his family.
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
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.