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Early-stage financing rounds are on track to hit their lowest dollar value in years as funders continue to eschew risky investments, experts told BioSpace.
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After debuting on the public markets with $256.3 million and raking in an additional $472 million, Veradermics has emerged as one of biotech’s biggest post-IPO standouts. CEO Reid Waldman credits the weight loss craze for establishing consumer-driven channels.
Molecular glue degraders are gaining traction in the clinic as well as funding from Big Pharma, with their potential to treat previously “undruggable” cancers and immunological diseases. Here are five clinical programs worth keeping an eye on.
Last month, the FDA launched TrialBlazer, intended to streamline the IND path and bring early clinical trials and medical innovation home to the U.S. It’s a start, but new agency leadership must see it through.
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Congressional letters sent to the CEOs of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, BMS and AbbVie this week voicing concerns about the pharmas’ clinical trials in China highlight an ongoing discrepancy in how government and industry think about the rise of the Asian country’s biotech industry.
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In addition to claiming revenue of $19.3 billion for the fourth quarter, Eli Lilly executives offered a glimpse into their strategy to expand their GLP-1 franchise into the immunology and inflammation space, with trials currently underway in asthma, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly both think the Wegovy pill is doing well, but the American rival sees the successful launch as a harbinger of good news for its own candidate, orforglipron, which is expected to hit the market in the second quarter.
On its fourth quarter earnings call Wednesday, AbbVie CEO Robert Michael called oncology and neuroscience “underappreciated” areas of focus for the pharma.
Novo Nordisk CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar acknowledged the market pressure facing the company’s GLP-1 products but sought to assure investors that Novo has the situation under control.
Amgen believes that it can transcend the expected tradeoff between convenience and efficacy, anticipating that its investigational obesity drug MariTide will continue to provide competitive weight loss even at monthly or longer schedules.
After review, Amgen is certain that Tavneos is effective and has a favorable benefit-risk profile. The company informed the FDA on January 28 that they would not pull the drug.
Instead of joining the increasingly crowded GLP-1 arena, GSK will focus its efforts downstream of obesity—a push currently anchored by its Phase III-ready FGF21 analog efimosfermin alfa for liver fibrosis.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts said the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program did not receive congressional backing. The FDA has also not yet made disclosures for eight senior reviewers, according to Auchincloss.
Mounjaro and Zepbound combined for $11.7 billion in the fourth quarter, which beat analyst consensus of $10.6 billion.
Novartis will still be on the lookout for early-stage deals under $2 billion, and later-stage agreements around a product that could reach the market within five years, CEO Vas Narasimhan said Wednesday.