Research & Development

The biotech got a $176m award for its pandemic influenza vaccine program through BARDA’s Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle.

Lilly paid $140m up front for an option to acquire Radionetics for $1bn within an undisclosed timeframe. The private firm is developing small molecule GPCR-targeted radiopharmaceuticals.

BMS may have ditched an antibody-drug conjugate partnership with Eisai, but the Phase II pipeline for ADCs remains strong across the industry.

The Japanese pharma said it plans to accelerate development of the antibody-drug conjugate farletuzumab ecteribulin for solid tumors and will develop it independently.

Deal Snapshot: Merck said it would pay potentially more than $1.6bn for an exclusive global license for opevesostat for metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.

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.

The drug maker is spending $250m to acquire privately held Celsius and its lead candidate, a monoclonal antibody targeting TREM1 in inflammatory bowel disease.

An analysis of new ADCs in Phase III studies shows the difficulties, and possible rewards, of developing these drugs.

Phase IIb data for Auxora in an acute pancreatitis subpopulation is expected to set up the CRAC channel inhibitor for Phase III in that indication while suggesting positive read-through for AKI.

2seventy bio sold full rights to a hemophilia A program and in vivo gene editing technology to partner Novo Nordisk.

The companies are set to present Phase III results from their rival myostatin inhibitor drugs for spinal muscular atrophy in Q4, while also fast-tracking the candidates in obesity studies.

Parexel’s chief strategy officer Kushal Gohil, Clinical EVP Stephen Pyke and India head Sanjay Vyas share thoughts on possible hurdles to, and the cascading impact of obesity treatments, GenAI progress and the opportunities and challenges of real-world data in India, in the second of this two-part interview with Scrip.

Positive clinical outcomes for Hengrui and Innovent/Lilly’s obesity candidates presented at ADA were based on trials that enrolled Chinese subjects and were characterized by fewer women and less severe obesity than similar Western studies. Even so, some of the data appear to stack up well against western rival drugs.

Five years after a Phase III failure, Savara reports pivotal data supporting approval of molgramostim as the first drug for autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.

The company presented data showing it is possible to safely and effectively re-dose its ATTR amyloidosis CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy.

The success in the NIAGRA bladder cancer study is welcome, but another failure in NSCLC means AstraZeneca has more riding on the AEGEAN study, with an FDA advisory board to review the lung cancer data due shortly.