Affimed cut 25% of staff

Today's Big News

May 23, 2023

Moderna vets help launch new RNA venture with $300M in largest financing round of 2023 so far


Wave's ALS-dementia drug crashes out after early-phase flop, dealing further blow to target


Affimed reveals 25% of staff were laid off in April in wake of phase 2 lymphoma fail


Umoja wants to move CAR T beyond the 'Goldilocks patients'


Bristol Myers Squibb eyes phase 3 after pulmonary fibrosis drug reduces lung function decline


Achieve's anti-smoking drug beats placebo in 2nd phase 3, keeping biotech on course for FDA filing


2 small biotechs morph to work on oncology together

 

Featured

Moderna vets help launch new RNA venture with $300M in largest financing round of 2023 so far

ReNAgade Therapeutics is unveiling after closing a $300 million series A in the largest private fundraising round of the year to date. The new company's joint venture with Orna Therapeutics has already spawned a collaboration with Merck & Co.
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Top Stories

Wave's ALS-dementia drug crashes out after early-phase flop, dealing further blow to target

Wave Life Sciences’ antisense oligonucleotide WVE-004 has come up short in an early-phase trial. A year after Biogen and Ionis killed off a similar asset, the biotech is waving goodbye to WVE-004 after getting a look at early-phase clinical trial data in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia.

Affimed reveals 25% of staff were laid off in April in wake of phase 2 lymphoma fail

April was a tricky month for Affimed. We already knew that a phase 2 fail prompted the end of plans to develop a bispecific antibody as a monotherapy in lymphoma. Now, Affimed has revealed that the resulting reorganization also meant a quarter of its employees were shown the exit.

Umoja wants to move CAR T beyond the 'Goldilocks patients'

At ASCGT's annual meeting, the company presented new data showing the efficacy of its VivoVec and TumorTag tech in preclinical models of folate-receptor expressing tumors.

Bristol Myers Squibb eyes phase 3 after pulmonary fibrosis drug reduces lung function decline

Bristol Myers Squibb’s idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis therapy reduced the rate of lung function decline in a phase 2 study, providing the evidence needed to start thinking about a late-stage trial.

Achieve's anti-smoking drug beats placebo in 2nd phase 3, keeping biotech on course for FDA filing

Achieve Life Sciences’ smoking cessation drug candidate cytisinicline has hit the mark in a second phase 3 clinical trial, filling in a key gap in the evidence needed to support approval. But, amid lingering doubts about the asset’s commercial prospects, Achieve still has a sub-$200 million market cap.

2 small biotechs morph to work on oncology together

CohBar and Morphogenesis will morph into TuHURA Biosciences in an all-stock transaction that will see the newly formed, publicly held company work on addressing the major limitations of existing immuno-oncology treatments.

In strategic pivot under new CEO Francis, Teva plots cuts to its generics portfolio

At Teva's recent investor day, CEO Richard Francis unveiled the company's new "focused" strategy, including a plan to cull some "loss-making" products in the generics portfolio.

Texas attorney general investigating 2nd children's hospital over gender-affirming care

Scrutiny into Texas Children's Hospital's gender-affirming services for minors comes weeks after a Request to Examine was issued to Dell Children's Medical Center, which, per reports, has since lost several of its practitioners.

Abbott submits dual-chamber leadless pacemaker for FDA review after study success

When Abbott reeled in FDA approval for its first leadless pacemaker last spring, it was playing catch-up with Medtronic, whose Micra implant became the first such device greenlighted by the regulator in 2016. Now, however, Abbott is hoping to leap ahead of the competition by being the first to earn the FDA’s blessing for a dual-chamber version of the technology.

Obesity drugs have blockbuster potential for Novo, Lilly and Pfizer, but reputation and payment risks abound

A working drug to help reduce weight in obese patients has long been a dream within many pharma companies.
 
Fierce podcasts

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'The Top Line': 2023's biopharma layoffs, plus the headlines

This week on "The Top Line," we''ll discuss the recent biopharma layoff trends, plus Elizabeth Holmes, Sarepta Therapeutics, Abbott's FDA approval, and the rest of the week's headlines.

 

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