Obesity
Terns, once a rising star in obesity and the MASH space, will refocus on cancer and partner out a handful of obesity assets.
Maziar Mike Doustdar, who was named as Novo Nordisk’s new CEO last week, spoke on a second quarter earnings call of reallocating resources to the company’s “main core” of metabolic disease.
George Tidmarsh takes over temporarily at CBER following Vinay Prasad’s abrupt departure; Replimmune trial leaders protest rejection reportedly driven by FDA’s top cancer regulator Richard Pazdur; Merck’s $3 billion savings push claims 6,000 jobs; and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla addresses President Donald Trump’s new threats around Most Favored Nation drug pricing.
Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services scrapped a previous proposal, from the Biden administration, to include anti-obesity medications in Medicare Part D coverage.
Roche obtained CT-173, a PYY mimetic, in its $2.7 billion acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics in December 2023. The company reported the change in its second quarter earnings call.
Around 3,500 FDA employees received termination emails; FDA Commissioner Marty Makary suggests lowering industry user fees and tying review times to drug prices; the regulator opens its trove of complete response letters in the name of transparency; and two companies receive rejections for rare disease therapies.
The molecule, developed in collaboration with Massachusetts-based Kailera Therapeutics, is headed for a new drug application in China and global clinical trials.
New data and analyses presented at the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting highlight the priorities for the next generation of weight loss medicines: muscle preservation, limited side effects and novel targets.
H2 2025 catalysts to watch, biopharma implications of President Trump’s tax law, KalVista’s new hereditary angioedema drug that Marty Makary reportedly tried to reject, another lawsuit aimed at Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a plea from patients with ALS for access to BrainStorm’s NurOwn.
After a season of regulatory upheaval, obesity and rare genetic diseases will likely remain major themes for biopharma in 2025, according to Jefferies.
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