The Latest
-
Deep Dive // Patent thickets
Drug patents protect pharma profits. Track when they’ll expire here.
Intellectual property is the foundation of the drug industry’s business model. This database will track key patent expiry dates for 30 top-selling medicines.
Updated May 13, 2024 -
Lilly’s once-weekly insulin matches daily shots in late-stage tests
The results, which showed Lilly’s drug was as effective at controlling blood sugar as standard injections, come as Novo Nordisk seeks approval for a competing once-weekly insulin.
-
Bolt Biotherapeutics to lay off staff, abandon lead ADC candidate
The company will cut its workforce by half and shuffle leadership as it discontinues testing of the drug trastuzumab imbotolimod.
-
Blackstone-backed biotech launches with up to $300M for immune drug
Uniquity Bio emerged from stealth mode ready to begin Phase 2 trials of an antibody targeting the protein TSLP in asthma and COPD.
-
News roundup
Novo Holdings buys stake in life sciences tools company; BioMarin lays off 170
The parent of Novo Nordisk is acquiring 60% ownership of Single Use Support. Elsewhere, ICER is raising questions about a PTSD drug and BioMarin is cut jobs after a pipeline review.
-
Deep Dive
Biotech M&A is on the upswing. Track the latest deals here.
J&J’s proposed acquisition of Proteologix is the eighth buyout of an immune drug developer so far this year, outpacing even oncology M&A.
Updated 4 hours ago -
FogPharma, Artbio join forces to design a different radiopharma drug
The biotechs aim to marry FogPharma’s polypeptide science with Artbio’s lead-based radiopharmaceutical technology in one of the industry’s hottest fields.
-
Sands Capital raises $555M fund amid upturn in biotech ‘crossover’ investing
The firm, one of the sector’s more active crossover investors, closed the fund during a surge in the financings that bridge biotechs to the public markets.
-
Emerging biotech
Ajax, aiming for a better JAK drug, raises $95M to begin first tests
Goldman Sachs and Eli Lilly are among those backing the startup, which claims its prospect could be more potent than the myelofibrosis therapies that have come to market in recent years.
-
Emerging biotech
NewVale, an unorthodox investment firm, sets out to support biotech’s ‘infrastructure’
The firm, which closed a $167 million fund, aims to fill a “crucial gap” by growing the companies startups turn to for outsourced services, founder Todd Holmes told BioPharma Dive.
-
Deep Dive // Emerging biotech
Biotech IPOs are the industry’s lifeblood. Track how they’re performing.
Cancer drug startup Lirum Pharmaceuticals set terms for what could be the 11th IPO so far this year. But it would also be one of the smallest, with about $25 million in anticipated proceeds.
Updated April 19, 2024 -
Biosimilars are gaining ground. The IRA could push them further next year.
As commercial momentum builds, coverage incentives for the Medicare market are expected to favor biosimilars in 2025.
-
Takeda nabs option to license Alzheimer’s immunotherapies from AC Immune
The deal — worth $100 million up front and potentially billions more later on — gives Takeda an exclusive option to license an Alzheimer’s vaccine and other “active immunotherapies.”
-
Sanofi gambles $80M on Fulcrum’s muscular dystrophy drug
The deal gives the pharma partial rights to a medicine GSK once developed for heart disease but could soon become the first therapy for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.
-
Takeda targets ‘efficiency’ in restructuring, pipeline cuts
Among the pipeline changes is a decision by Takeda to terminate studies in blood cancer of TAK-007, a CAR-NK therapy, and to pivot instead to autoimmune conditions.
Updated May 10, 2024 -
Maze lands new partner for Pompe drug, after Sanofi pact came apart
An alliance with Shionogi involves similar terms as a deal Sanofi canceled in response to an unusual challenge from the Federal Trade Commission.
-
Novavax gets a lifeline with Sanofi vaccine pact
Sanofi will ally with the under-pressure biotech, paying $500 million upfront for rights to co-commercialize Novavax’s COVID shot and develop combination influenza vaccines.
-
RSV vaccines
FDA delays decision on Moderna RSV vaccine
The regulator cited “administrative constraints,” rather than any issue with Moderna’s trial data, for missing a May 12 deadline, the company said.
-
News roundup
iTeos shares jump on TIGIT update; Acelyrin swaps CEOs
Interim data surpassed expectations, iTeos said. Elsewhere, Acelyrin revealed chief executive officer Shao-Lee Lin is departing and Bluebird bio gave a fuller account of its gene therapy launches.
-
Royalty Pharma pays startup $525M for stake in Sanofi MS drug
The deal gives the company milestone payments and royalties to a medicine, frexalimab, that Sanofi licensed from biotech ImmuNext and expects to be a future blockbuster.
-
Obesity drugs
Novo taps another Flagship startup in search for next obesity drugs
The deal with Metaphore Biotechnologies is the third from a Flagship alliance meant to boost the Danish drugmaker’s pipeline of weight loss medicines.
-
Regeneron gene therapy improves hearing in two children
The results add to an early but growing body of evidence suggesting gene therapy may improve outcomes in young kids with a genetic form of deafness.
Updated May 8, 2024 -
AstraZeneca withdraws COVID-19 vaccine, citing declining demand
The move ends a turbulent saga for AstraZeneca, which successfully developed a coronavirus shot but struggled to sell it amid competition and the emergence of rare but serious side effects.
-
Patient dies in Pfizer study of Duchenne gene therapy
Pfizer said the patient, a young boy who was treated earlier last year, died suddenly from cardiac arrest. The company is working with trial researchers to investigate further.
Updated May 8, 2024 -
New Alzheimer's drugs
FDA sets date for advisory meeting on Lilly’s closely watched Alzheimer’s drug
After delaying an approval decision for Lilly’s donanemab, the agency now intends to hold an advisory committee meeting on June 10.