Private Company Edition: Lilly will open a third accelerator, this time in San Diego, and Fosun partnered with Treehill to help later-stage firms get over the finish line. Also, Flagship – after recent UK investments – signals its next fund will total $3bn. ArrivoBio and Alto Neuroscience raised $45m each.

Recent executive moves in the industry include changes at the top at Spyre Therapeutics, Neopharmed Gentili and CytoDyn.

Big pharmaceutical oncology franchise sales generally grew in the third quarter of 2023, but some were transitioning through loss of exclusivity and others were not being helped by their most innovative therapies.

Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events and approvals announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.

Forbion’s Sander Slootweg looks back over the company’s most successful year so far, and looks ahead at likely market and therapy area trends for 2024.

Scrip caught up with Olema CEO Sean Bohen ahead of a crucial combination data readout due this month for its novel SERD, palazestrant, which it hopes will put the drug on the path to a $10bn-plus breast cancer market.

Akero hopes to begin Phase III study of efruxifermin this year, with 89bio working to enter Phase III with pegozafermin in 2024. But just behind them, Boston Pharmaceuticals thinks it has a convenience and immunogenicity edge.

The company wants to focus efforts with the TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor in orphan rheumatology indications like dermatomyositis where current treatment options are inadequate.

The first $1bn quarter since 2021 suggests that biotech’s IPO window is opening once more. But times remain tough, and many recently listed groups have seen their valuations fall.

Among the newer modalities to tackle cancer, antibody-drug conjugates are fast emerging to rival targeted antibodies and China is fast emerging as a world class source of innovation in the field, as evidenced by a string of recent deals.

After a multi-year lull, NASH R&D has picked up this past year with key data readouts, several programs advancing toward Phase III and Madrigal's resmetirom under FDA review with a March 2024 action. This graphic provides a look at the overall status of NASH drug R&D.

The Merck & Co vaccine for human papillomavirus Gardasil, along with Johnson & Johnson’s Darzalex for multiple myeloma, entered the ranks of the top 10 best-selling drugs globally in the second quarter. There was no product for COVID-19 in the line-up for the first time since 2020.

Private Company Edition: Lilly will open a third accelerator, this time in San Diego, and Fosun partnered with Treehill to help later-stage firms get over the finish line. Also, Flagship – after recent UK investments – signals its next fund will total $3bn. ArrivoBio and Alto Neuroscience raised $45m each.

Twice-daily danuglipron reduced weight in a Phase IIb trial but with a poor side-effect profile and high discontinuation rates. Pfizer is working on a once-daily formulation it hopes will offer better tolerability.

Forbion’s Sander Slootweg looks back over the company’s most successful year so far, and looks ahead at likely market and therapy area trends for 2024.

Obesity drug pemvidutide looks better at nearly a year than it did at six months, but still lags rivals Wegovy and Zepbound.

When it comes to building innovative pipelines and raising cash, Scandinavia is giving the rest of Europe a run for its money.

A new report discusses the priorities that India should focus on to leapfrog towards transformative innovation. Big pharma’s expanding global capability centres (GCCs) in India are also contributing to the innovation ecosystem while positioning the country as the global industry's “backbone”.

Scrip caught up with Olema CEO Sean Bohen ahead of a crucial combination data readout due this month for its novel SERD, palazestrant, which it hopes will put the drug on the path to a $10bn-plus breast cancer market.

Recent executive moves in the industry include changes at the top at Spyre Therapeutics, Neopharmed Gentili and CytoDyn.

CAR-T therapy-associated T-cell malignancies that the US FDA is investigating could make the treatments less attractive in autoimmune diseases than in oncology, but patients in both settings already accept some cancer risk with other available medicines.

Akero hopes to begin Phase III study of efruxifermin this year, with 89bio working to enter Phase III with pegozafermin in 2024. But just behind them, Boston Pharmaceuticals thinks it has a convenience and immunogenicity edge.

Hopes are that the impact of the US FDA’s investigation into a small number of T-cell malignancies associated with CAR-T therapies will be small since the benefit/risk profile still looks sound.

Big pharmaceutical oncology franchise sales generally grew in the third quarter of 2023, but some were transitioning through loss of exclusivity and others were not being helped by their most innovative therapies.