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
IPO
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.
Job Trends
FROM OUR EDITORS
Read our takes on the biggest stories happening in the industry.
FDA
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 move by Acelyrin’s board comes as the venture capital firm has taken larger and larger stakes in the company in an attempt to disrupt a merger with Alumis.
In this episode of Denatured, BioSpace’s Head of Insights Lori Ellis and Miruna Sasu, CEO of COTA, discuss the challenges of inclusion and exclusion criteria of clinical trial patients, and reflect on current investment approaches around women’s health.
With what analysts are calling “strong” data, Amgen plans to file a regulatory submission for Uplizna, currently approved for a rare ocular autoimmune disorder, in myasthenia gravis, in the first half of 2025.
Johnson & Johnson and Legend Biotech hope to hit blockbuster status for Carvykti this year.
Both Mallinckrodt and Endo have previously declared bankruptcy, linked to opioid-related lawsuits.
Gilead plans to go straight to Phase III studies for once-yearly lenacapavir, while GSK and ViiV will push forward with their long-acting antivirals after touting positive early-stage results.
According to Judge Kenneth Bell, there is a lack of evidence to conclude that Merck willingly misrepresented the safety of its HPV vaccine Gardasil to patients and prescribers.
Roche and Zealand plan to study petrelintide as a monotherapy and in combination with CT-388, a dual agonist of the GLP-1 and GIP receptors that Roche picked up in its recent acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics.
Ionis will receive $280 million upfront and could get up to $660 million in future milestone payments. Ono will take charge of late-stage development as well as regulatory and commercialization activities.
BioSpace remembers COVID-19 five years after the pandemic was declared, Novo Nordisk’s CagriSema again misses expectations as the company joins a lawsuit filed by drug compounders against the FDA, Viking secures ample supply of its investigational obesity medication, J&J strikes out in depression, and Makary and Bhattacharya near confirmation.