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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.
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
While more programs now involve candidates with different targets, experts say anti-amyloid therapies will remain a primary player in treating the memory-robbing disease.
LSD, ketamine, ibogaine and related treatments are moving forward in clinical trials for substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder.
Regeneron and Sanofi will have to wait until September 2024 for the FDA to decide whether to expand Dupixent’s label to include uncontrolled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
In addition to missing the mark in overall survival, Gilead reported Thursday a higher number of deaths in the Trodelvy arm of the confirmatory metastatic urothelial cancer study.
Novartis’ Scemblix posted stronger results with fewer discontinuation rates than both its own Gleevec and a stronger second-generation TKI, positioning it for a potential first-line indication in chronic myeloid leukemia.
As evidenced by this week’s buyouts by J&J and Merck, Big Pharma appears to have found a sweet spot favoring smaller deals over megabillion-dollar acquisitions.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting kicks off today in Chicago, with highly anticipated presentations that include reports on a bispecific antibody, an ADC and a BCMA-targeted CAR-T cell therapy.
The Roivant spinout is shifting its attention away from batoclimab to anti-FcRn candidate IMVT-1402, which will target autoimmune disorders, while allowing argenx’s Myasthenia Gravis drug Vyvgart to maintain its lead position for now.
Tempting as it may be to turn to full automation to meet burdensome requirements, the potential for hallucination and other issues means biopharma companies must proceed with caution.
Additional analyses from BridgeBio Pharma’s late-stage study show the oral drug candidate improved clinical outcomes in transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy patients.