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Tristan Manalac

Tristan Manalac

Contributing Writer | News

Tristan is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, with 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.

Big fish with dollar sign eating many small ones. Competition, merger, business, monopoly concept. EPS 8 vector illustration, no transparency
M&A
Merck Makes Big Respiratory Play With $10B Acquisition of Verona
In the second biggest acquisition of the year, Merck gains the commercial COPD drug Ohtuvayre, which could help offset the loss of revenue when Keytruda’s patent expires later this decade.
July 9, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Supreme Court of the United States. Washington DC, USA.
Legal
Supreme Court Suspends Injunction Preventing RFK Jr.'s HHS Cuts
The high court’s order blocks a May decision by a California court that temporarily blocked the efforts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to drastically reduce the size of his agency’s workforce.
July 9, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Tariffs
Trump Threatens 200% Pharma Tariffs—But Gives At Least 1-Year Grace Period
Leerink Partners called the announcement a ‘positive’ given the delayed timeframe and the uncertainty that the administration will implement tariffs at all.
July 9, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
People are attracted to a profitable business. Corporation, joint venture. Fundraising. Fair distribution of income among team members. Development of funds, budget use. Investment groups. Corruption
Radiopharmaceuticals
Actithera Raises $75.5M To Play in Sizzling Radiopharma Space
Actithera’s radiopharma assets irreversibly bind to their targets, allowing for longer retention of the drug inside tumors.
July 9, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Business time plan concept and planning corporate or personal schedule or wasting minutes as a group of timepieces or clocks coming out of a large clock as a 3D illustration.
Startups
Six Startups Changing The Way We Age
Armed with the latest biological knowledge and cutting-edge computational techniques—and, of course, investor dollars—these six biotechs are playing in the largely underappreciated longevity space, developing therapies that may improve the quality of aging.
July 9, 2025
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11 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Dementia and mental health recovery treatment and Alzheimer brain memory disease therapy concept as old trees recovering as a neurology or psychology and psychiatry cure metaphor with 3D illustration elements on a white background.
Startups
Longevity Biotechs Strive for Better Aging—Not Just Life Extension
The industry sector focused on aging is only about 10 years old, but acting on what scientists already know, a new crop of biotechs, backed by investors, are taking a disease-centric approach to extending the human lifespan.
July 9, 2025
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Donald Trump sits at a desk holding up a piece of paper he just signed while a crowd of people applauds
Government
Trump’s Tax Law Restores Orphan Drug Exemptions, Cuts Medicaid, Threatens 340B Program and Gives PBMs a Pass
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law last week, reintroduces broader exemptions for orphan drugs from the IRA’s drug price negotiation program—a move welcomed by the biopharma industry. The new tax law also cuts Medicaid funding, posing a minimal risk to pharma’s bottomlines and potentially jeopardizing hospitals’ 340B status. It does not, however, include new rules for pharmacy benefit managers that had been in an earlier draft.
July 8, 2025
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Yellow Forklift truck truckraises a box over a stack of boxes and red arrow down. Decrease in economic rates, low demand for goods, decrease in import or export. Reduced storage, logistics costs
Immunology and inflammation
Jasper Crashes as Compromised Drug Lot Confounds Urticaria Study
After issues with a batch of Jasper Therapeutics’ investigational antibody led to “lower” therapeutic effects in several patients, analysts at BMO Capital Markets said they “believe investors won’t feel comfortable coming back to the story.”
July 8, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes remarks at an event announcing the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Commission, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
Legal
Medical Groups Sue RFK Jr. Over ‘Baseless and Uninformed’ Changes to COVID-19 Vaccine Policy
Societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, allege that Kennedy’s directive to remove COVID-19 from vaccination guidelines for healthy pregnant women and healthy children puts these vulnerable groups at risk of serious illness.
July 8, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Business vision and target. Businessman holding telescope standing on arrow up go to success in career. Concept business, Achievement, Character, Leader, Vector illustration flat
Drug Development
5 Second-Half Biopharma Milestones To Watch
After a season of regulatory upheaval, obesity and rare genetic diseases will likely remain major themes for biopharma in 2025, according to Jefferies.
July 7, 2025
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8 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Success to win in business competition, overcome obstacles or motivation to solve problem and lead company achievement concept, confident businessman leader jump high over 3 hurdles to be winner.
Approvals
KalVista Wins OK for First On-Demand Hereditary Angioedema Pill
Ekterly’s road to approval was not a smooth one. Last month, the FDA informed KalVista it would not meet its PDUFA date due to resource constraints and reports surfaced that Commissioner Marty Makary tried to have the application rejected.
July 7, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Entrance to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC
Layoffs
HHS Cuts and Rehires by the Numbers: What We Know About Kennedy’s Overhaul
Despite rehiring hundreds of FDA, CDC and NIH employees, the Department of Health and Human Services is still a skeleton of its former self under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
July 7, 2025
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
businessman Climbing mountain. Symbol of success, career, leadership and goal
Immuno-oncology
Four Therapies Hanging On in Troubled TIGIT Space
TIGIT-targeting therapies have largely disappointed in recent months, with failed studies, terminated partnerships and shuttered businesses. Here are five biopharma players staying alive with differentiated candidates against the once promising immuno-oncology target.
July 7, 2025
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9 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Immunology and inflammation
Late-Stage Stumble for Cosentyx Sets Novartis Back in Autoimmune Condition
Novartis is falling farther behind AbbVie, which expanded its JAK inhibitor Rinvoq into giant cell arteritis in April.
July 3, 2025
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Close-Up Of Syringe With Bottles Against Blue Background
RSV
Kennedy Follows RSV Recommendations of ACIP Members He Fired
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed the expanded use of RSV vaccines for people 50 through 59 years old who are at risk of severe disease.
July 3, 2025
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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