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Tristan Manalac

Tristan Manalac

Senior Staff Writer

Tristan is BioSpace‘s senior staff writer. Based in Metro Manila, Tristan has more than eight years of experience writing about medicine, biotech and science. Being formally trained in molecular biology, he once dreamed of collecting degrees and starting his own lab. But these days, he finds his greatest joy in a bottle of beer and a beautiful sentence. He can be reached at tristan.manalac@biospace.com, tristan@tristanmanalac.com or on LinkedIn.

Policy
Teva Proposes $5B Settlement for Thousands of Opioid Lawsuits
Teva expects to finalize and complete the documentation needed in the coming weeks, followed by a nationwide sign-on process for states, subdivisions and Native American tribes.
July 27, 2022
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Drug Development
Biogen/Ionis Scores NDA Nod for ALS Candidate
Ionis announced that the FDA has accepted its NDA for tofersen for SOD1-ALS. The application has been given the priority review designation and an action date of January 25, 2023.
July 26, 2022
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Monkey pox vesicles in a hand
Policy
Are Companies Scrapping COVID Therapies for Monkeypox?
WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern [PHEIC].” As COVID-19 wanes, Tonix, SIGA, Emergent Bio and others are now targeting monkeypox.
July 26, 2022
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
Drug Development
FDA Hands Out Regulatory Nods to Novartis, AstraZeneca, HOOKIPA
Daiichi-Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s sBLA for HER2 directed Enhertu accepted by FDA. Novartis gets BLA acceptance for MS biosimilar. HOOKIPA’s IND for prostate cancer immunotherapy candidate accepted
July 25, 2022
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4 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Drug Development
VistaGen’s Nasal Spray for Social Anxiety Disorder Falls Short in Phase III Trial
VistaGenTherapeutics announced data showing that its nasal spray candidate for anxiety, depression and other central nervous system disorders, fell short of its primary endpoint.
July 22, 2022
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Elderly woman sitting alone and looking sadly outside the window
Drug Development
Scientific Community Questions Anti-Amyloid Theory - the Basis for Seminal Alzheimer’s Work
The data used to support the argument that Aβ*56 is responsible for the Alzheimer’s Disease hallmark of memory loss appears to have been fabricated or heavily tampered with.
July 22, 2022
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe
Policy
Biogen Quietly Resolves Whistleblower Case for $900M
The whistleblower claim was brought by former employee Michael Bawduniak, who accused the company of paying off doctors to favor its multiple sclerosis drugs over those of its competitors.
July 21, 2022
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Business
Vertex Sinks Potential $400M into Verve in Quest for Liver Disease Gene Therapy
Vertex and Verve announced they had entered an exclusive four-year research partnership to discover and nurture a gene editing therapy for yet-undisclosed liver disease.
July 21, 2022
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Drug Development
VBL Becomes Latest Casualty in Heated Battle to Solve Ovarian Cancer
VBL’s ofra-vec candidate was primarily evaluated on its ability to improve PFS and OS in study participants—and delivered disappointing results for both measures.
July 20, 2022
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
John Schlueter_Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Th
Drug Development
Ultragenyx Buys GeneTx to Take Angelman ASO the Distance - Updated
The buyout comes on the heels of promising Phase I/II results from GTX-102, an antisense oligonucleotide candidate being developed to treat Angelman syndrome.
July 19, 2022
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4 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Courtesy of Ken Wolter/Shutterstock
Business
Who is Nestlé Health Science and How Do They Play in Biopharma?
In the latest in Nestlé’s efforts to establish a presence in the gastroenterology space, the company will pay over $40 million upfront to Enterome as part of a new partnership.
July 18, 2022
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Omega Therapeutics team, Courtesy Omega Therapeuti
Drug Development
Omega Gets FDA Nod to Start First-Ever Epigenomic Controller Trial
Omega Therapeutics announced Thursday that the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) candidate OTX-2002 has been granted by the FDA.
July 15, 2022
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
MIT’s Burst-Release Microparticles Could Lead to Fewer Boosters
Once proven clinically safe and effective, MIT’s technology could pave the way toward “self-boosting” vaccines and eliminate the need for multiple shots.
July 15, 2022
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Courtesy of Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images
Business
Theravance Finds Creative Solution to Recent Woes with $1.31B Royalty Payday
Under the terms of the deal, Theravance and Innoviva are surrendering 85% and 15% of their stakes in Trelegy in exchange for $1.1 billion and $282 million from Royalty, respectively.
July 14, 2022
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Drug Development
Lack of Sufficient Data Sinks Atara in Mid-Phase MS Study
Atara announced that it has completed an interim analysis of its Phase II EMBOLD trial for the use of its candidate ATA188 in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis.
July 13, 2022
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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