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As companies roll out data showing the power and improved safety profile of antibodies that target two antigens, analysts say the class could overtake monoclonal antibody Keytruda as the “immunotherapy backbone” of solid tumor treatment.
FDA
Since its inception in 1992, the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway has helped shepherd nearly 300 new drugs to the market. However, recent years have seen a number of high-profile market withdrawals and failed confirmatory trials.
Large pharmaceutical companies were out in force at this week’s 2024 Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa, as they look to expand their presence in the industry.
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FDA
Merck (NYSE: MRK) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved WELIREG, an oral hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2α) inhibitor, for the treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following a programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) or programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor and a vascular endothelial growth factor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (VEGF-TKI).
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The HHS secretary recently canceled $500 million worth of BARDA contracts around mRNA vaccine research. But the U.S. government has already spent billions on this work, which has saved millions of lives.
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Merck’s Keytruda holds on to the top spot while AbbVie’s Humira—once the world’s top-selling drug—continues to cede its market share to biosimilar competitors.
Congress did not reauthorize the rare pediatric disease priority review program at the end of 2024. Advocates say the ripple effect is already being felt across biopharma.
Less than two months after two FDA-related setbacks, Atara Biotherapeutics is again cutting its workforce in half. This time, it’s also hitting pause on two CAR T programs, including one affected by an FDA clinical hold in January.
The approval for the first-line treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma comes shortly after a label expansion for the drug in gastric and gastroesophageal cancers as BeiGene also pushes forward a pipeline of novel cancer therapies.
TNKase is the first stroke drug to win FDA approval in nearly three decades.
Last week, Eli Lilly also responded to the President’s tariff warnings by investing $27 billion to construct four manufacturing facilities across the U.S. in five years.
The partners are pushing to expand Enhertu’s list of indications beyond its standing uses in breast, lung and gastric cancers.
Biohaven in recent months has reported a clinical stumble in spinal muscular atrophy, alongside a Phase I readout for its protein degrader candidate that investors found underwhelming.
In the second podcast in a special series focused on BioSpace’s NextGen Class of 2025, Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong speaks with Kevin Marks, CEO of Delphia Therapeutics.
Delphia launched in May 2024 with the goal of forcing malignant cells to overactivate and die.