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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.
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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.
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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.
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J&J has recently pulled back from the infectious diseases space, including winding down R&D activity in this area in August 2023.
The clinical hold doesn’t cover its drug’s Investigational New Drug application for autoimmune hepatitis, for which the Phase IIa PORTOLA trial is ongoing.
After several high-profile failures, including BMS’ $1.5B breakup with Agenus, anti-TIGIT therapies are generating cautious optimism.
After psychological side effects doomed the first generation of cannabinoid receptor 1–targeting drugs for weight loss, Novo Nordisk, Corbus Pharmaceuticals and Skye Bioscience are betting that a new mechanism of action will improve the safety profile.
Relay Therapeutics is cutting its workforce to help streamline its research organization as it looks to complete its first large-scale, pivotal clinical trial.
Scaling GLP-1 manufacturing capacity remains a key priority for the pharma industry, to help supply catch up with the insatiable demand for weight loss drugs.
Under the deal announced Friday, the Italian pharma will make an upfront payment of $825 million to Sanofi for global rights to a biologic for the treatment of cold agglutinin disease, with milestone payments of up to $250 million.
The company is lowering its previously issued guidance for 2024 adjusted earnings per share by $0.04 per share to account for acquired in-process research and development expenses incurred for acquisitions and collaborations in the third quarter.
Opdivo’s approval for patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer comes as the regulator recently raised concerns of overtreatment with this type of therapeutic regimen with platinum-doublet chemotherapy.
While a JAMA study found a decline in mpox antibody responses after vaccination, a University of Oxford expert cautioned that there is still not enough evidence to determine if this decline also leads to waning protections.