Plus deals involving Bristol Myers Squibb/Avidity, Aexon/NLS, Boehringer Ingelheim/Phenomic AI, AnaptysBio/Centessa and Biodexa/Adhera/Melior.

Recent executive moves in biopharma include the changes at the top for 13 firms, as former Genentech CEO Alexander Hardy replaced Jean-Jaques Bienaimé at BioMarin on 1 December. 

Public Company Edition: Arvinas grossed $350m in a private placement, while Xenon brought in $345m and Pharvaris raised $300m in follow-on public offerings. Fundraising remains challenging, however, so IGM Biosciences, Hansa Biopharma and other companies cut costs to save money.

A rise in childhood pneumonia in China and The Netherlands raised fears of another pandemic but the variety of identified pathogens gave way to the concept of ‘immunity debt’ resulting from the last pandemic.

Chinese drugmakers’ “ability to move quicker at pace and with purpose” than counterparts in the US, Europe and other parts of the world underlies increasing deal activity with big pharmas, AstraZeneca’s BD chief Shaun Grady tells Scrip. 

Astellas’s senior director, head of enterprise insights and digital solutions, digital, analytics and technology tells Scrip how data analytics and deductive hypothesis-oriented simulation are driving improved strategic decision-making across the organization. He also outlined some early generative AI use cases and the promise of digital twins in medicine.

The Spanish firm is all set to launch its atopic dermatitis drug in Germany later this month and is hopeful of a smooth reimbursement path across Europe.

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.

The investment wings of big biopharma are taking part in a larger proportion of VC deals than ever before.

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.

In this week's edition of Five Must-Know Things: another acquisition for AbbVie; Roche buys into the obesity market; J&J’s oral immunology push; oral incretins advance; and AstraZeneca on Chinese innovation.

China's BlissBio has unveiled new clinical results for its HER2-targeting ADC BB-1701 in HER2-low breast cancer, which showed “promising” preliminary efficacy and "manageable" safety, in a glimpse into the Enhertu challenger's potential. 

Autolus presented event-free survival rates and other updated results at ASH from its Phase Ib/II FELIX clinical trial of obe-cel, a CD19 CAR-T therapy recently submitted for US FDA approval.

Plus deals involving Bristol Myers Squibb/Avidity, Aexon/NLS, Boehringer Ingelheim/Phenomic AI, AnaptysBio/Centessa and Biodexa/Adhera/Melior.

Recent executive moves in biopharma include the changes at the top for 13 firms, as former Genentech CEO Alexander Hardy replaced Jean-Jaques Bienaimé at BioMarin on 1 December. 

Public Company Edition: Arvinas grossed $350m in a private placement, while Xenon brought in $345m and Pharvaris raised $300m in follow-on public offerings. Fundraising remains challenging, however, so IGM Biosciences, Hansa Biopharma and other companies cut costs to save money.

Buying Cerevel six days after the ImmunoGen takeout, with a combined value of nearly $19bn, AbbVie thinks it has restocked its pipeline with future blockbusters to drive post-Humira growth.

The BCMAxCD3-directed bispecific for multiple myeloma is one of the crown jewels of Regeneron’s larger program to develop bispecifics as it diversifies beyond its traditional core franchises.

Investors balked at Sanofi plans to raise R&D spending and eat into profits, so CEO Paul Hudson and new R&D chief Houman Ashrafian need to convince doubters that its immunology focused plan will pay off.

The FDA is set to make a decision on elafibranor for primary biliary cholangitis by June next year, which could give Ipsen a head start over CymaBay's seladelpar.

As the president’s reelection campaign themes take shape, the administration is preparing to leverage NIH patents in ways it had previously eschewed. As with the merger oversight effort, though, the germs of the plans began earlier in Biden’s tenure.

Major Chinese biopharma contract services group WuXi Biologics' share price plummeted after it said external factors would contribute to it missing original revenue targets this year in multiple areas.