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Today's Rundown

Featured Story

Novavax delays COVID-19 vaccine regulatory submissions—again

Novavax will not file for approval of its COVID-19 vaccine until July at the earliest, thanks to manufacturing issues related to an assay needed to show regulators that its vaccine manufacturing process is consistent across different sites. 

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Top Stories

Ginkgo lands on Nasdaq via $17.5B SPAC merger, giving it billions to fuel growth 

Ginkgo Bioworks is set to go public through a $17.5 billion merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal, which involves Arie Belldegrun, will generate $2.5 billion of gross cash proceeds to support Ginkgo’s efforts to engineer cells to enable new product development.

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Lilly, MiNA ink broad deal to upregulate proteins using RNA

Eli Lilly has struck a deal with MiNA Therapeutics to develop small activating RNA (saRNA) candidates against up to five targets across its key therapeutic focus areas. Lilly is paying $25 million upfront and committing to milestones of up to $245 million per target to work with MiNA. 

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Nuvalent bags $135M to trial resistance-beating kinase inhibitors in lung cancer

Nuvalent has raised $135 million to take ROS1 and ALK kinase inhibitors into the clinic. The series B, which comes months after Nuvalent disclosed a $50 million round, sets Nuvalent up to study drugs designed to improve on products such as Roche’s Alecensa and Pfizer’s Xalkori.

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AbbVie oncology exec Thorstein Graef jumps ship for natural killer cell biotech Acepodia

Cell therapy biotech Acepodia nabbed AbbVie cancer R&D veteran Thorsten Graef as chief medical officer. Graef rose up the ranks after AbbVie’s 2015 acquisition of Pharmacyclics, which brought the blockbuster cancer drug Imbruvica into the pharma giant’s fold.

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Ex-Purdue CEO Timney lands at amyloidosis biotech Attralus

Having sold off The Medicines Company to Novartis for $9.7 billion last year, former Purdue CEO Mark Timney is taking the helm of yet another biopharma company. He joins Attralus Therapeutics, a company working on new treatments for systemic amyloidosis, alongside several other new hires.

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Appia Bio aims for a new kind of off-the-shelf CAR-T with $52M raise

Appia Bio launches with $52 million to develop off-the-shelf cell therapies for cancer based on hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells. Its platform, dubbed ACUA, allows for the programming of stem cells to become invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, a rare but powerful subtype of T cell. The company hopes to be in the clinic in 2023.

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Still chasing after an FDA nod, Orchard posts a long-term data win for its latest gene therapy

Three years after receiving a gene therapy from Orchard Therapeutics in an early-stage clinical trial, 100% of patients with an inherited disease that damages the immune system were still alive, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine today.

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Pharma industry's reputation hits plateau amid spike in vaccine hesitancy

Pharma's hockey stick upswing is flattening out, at least reputation-wise. The good news is the industry is still the biggest gainer when it comes to pandemic image-polishing, according to The Harris Poll’s most recent survey.

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COVID-flu combo vaccine from Novavax sparks immune response to both viruses in animals

As Novavax prepares to file for FDA emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 shot, the vaccine developer is already looking ahead to the possibility of combining coronavirus and flu protection. In ferrets and hamsters, a flu-COVID combo vaccine produced antibodies against both viruses at levels comparable to what was seen with either component vaccine alone, the company said.

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Resources

Whitepaper: The Journey to a Global Modular Content Strategy

One top 10 pharma outlines three key steps to launching a modular content strategy to generate localized content faster.

E-Book: 7 Keys to Success in Europe

This 77-page e-book explores 7 keys to success that any biopharma company needs to keep in mind as it enters Europe.

Executive Brief: Seven Secrets to Patient Experience Breakthroughs: Improving the Patient Experience and Study Retention

The average clinical trial spends $40,000 per patient. Yet despite these high costs, most trials struggle to retain patients.

Article: Make the right move at every step of the drug commercialization process

Developing a quality product and getting it approved for distribution is not enough to guarantee commercial success.

eBook: The New Standard: Virtual Study Training in Clinical Trials

The new standards in study training help sponsors and CROs reduce costs by 60%, cut training time by 50%, and start enrollment 55 days faster – learn more today.

Report: New research indicates an accelerated shift to decentralized clinical trials

New research indicates an accelerated adoption of decentralized clinical trials due to COVID-19.

Content Hub: Process Intensification Resource Center

A one-stop hub for Cytiva resources to support process intesification

Whitepaper: COVID-19 Survey report: The Lasting Impact on Outsourcing Decisions

How has COVID-19 impacted CRO/CDMO customer (dis)satisfaction and outsourcing decisions for pharma and biotech companies in 2021 and beyond?

Content Hub: Emerging Biotech Resource Center

A one-stop hub for Cytiva resources to support process development and manufacturing of your novel molecule

Whitepaper: Roche to pick up GenMark Diagnostics in $1.8B infectious disease testing deal

Roche has inked a $1.8 billion, all-cash deal for GenMark Diagnostics, to acquire its molecular tests designed to screen patient samples for multiple infections simultaneously.

Content Hub: Remarque Systems Resource Hub

Remarque Systems consolidates data, then layers on visualization and automated metrics to generate consistent, actionable data insights in real-time. Click here for more info. 

Whitepaper: New Data: A Better Way to Run CHO Cell Culture Experiments

Find out how upstream bioprocess scientists can use Culture Biosciences’ bioreactor system and real-time data visualizations to get faster insights and get their product to market more quickly.

Whitepaper: Overcoming the hurdles of Real-World Data Access through a federated global network

Those wishing to unlock RWD’s true value must have access to a variety of data sources/types and the technological capabilities to use the data to uncover meaningful insights.

Report: New research indicates an accelerated shift to decentralized clinical trials

New research indicates an accelerated adoption of decentralized clinical trials due to COVID-19.

Executive Summary: Manufacturing Strategies to Effectively Industrialize Autologous Cell Therapies

Autologous cell therapies have seen propelled growth since 2017, with the spotlight on the first FDA approval of a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy, Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel), for the treatment of relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

eBrief: Drug Product Process Development: Ensuring a Consistent, High-quality Biologic

Learn about drug product process development challenges and risks, the difference between innovator and biosimilar drug product process development, and more during the drug product process development phase.

Whitepaper: Achieving a Successful Drug Product Technology Transfer

Get insights on key considerations for a successful tech transfer process for manufacturing a biologic drug product, including a case study on overcoming challenges in a process transfer for a sterile diluent.

Whitepaper: The Art of Recognizing Clinical Supply Risk Factors

In a BioPharma Dive industry survey, planning and forecasting were identified as top concerns for trial sponsors. In response to this need, the CSM team at Catalent has developed a methodology for identifying, evaluating, and proactively managing the inherent risks involved in clinical trial supply chain management.

eBook: Expecting the Unexpected: Strategies for Efficient Clinical Supply Management and Forecasting

Learn how to drive excellence within the forecasting process and utilize forecasting throughout the clinical study to better plan clinical supply budgets and project timelines. Explore how to identify potential supply-related issues before they can negatively impact your study.

Events