New RNA venture, backed by Moderna vets, nabs $300M

This Week

May 26, 2023

Most expensive drugs in the US in 2023 


Novartis to buy Avrobio gene therapy for $88M, leaving rest of the biotech on the shelf 


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


Pear pulped: Digital therapeutics maker's assets sold for $6M at auction after bankruptcy filing 


'The Top Line': The 20 most influential people in biopharma, plus this week's headlines 

 

Featured

Most expensive drugs in the US in 2023

Many of the drugs on this list will be well known to industry watchers. Last year, bluebird, plus CSL Behring and uniQure, nabbed three gene therapy nods in quick succession. Elsewhere, Novartis’ established gene therapy Zolgensma continues to orbit the top of the price rankings.
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Top Stories

Novartis to buy Avrobio gene therapy for $88M, leaving rest of the biotech on the shelf

Novartis is buying a gene therapy candidate from the cash-constrained Avrobio, striking an unusual deal that will see it pay $87.5 million without committing milestones or royalties to land the clinical-phase asset. The news comes months after Novartis was reported to be lining up a takeover of Avrobio.

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.

Pear pulped: Digital therapeutics maker's assets sold for $6M at auction after bankruptcy filing

Less than two years after Pear Therapeutics went public in a SPAC deal worth $1.6 billion—which in turn came after the digital therapeutics maker had raised more than $400 million in venture capital—its assets were sold in an auction this week for just over $6 million.

'The Top Line': The 20 most influential people in biopharma, plus this week's headlines

This week on "The Top Line," we discuss the 20 most influential people in biopharma, plus a topical gene therapy, a new opioid overdose medication, and the rest of the week's headlines.

Intercept's NASH dreams may be dashed after FDA panel votes against Ocaliva's approval bid

It looks like Intercept Pharmaceuticals’ Ocaliva has a tough road ahead in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis after a panel of FDA advisers voiced concerns with the company's application package.

Moderna, looking beyond vaccines, guides first mRNA protein replacement therapy past early clinical test

Moderna has early clinical evidence that its mRNA technology can treat a rare disease by replacing intracellular proteins. Participants in the phase 1/2 trial experienced a 66% overall relative risk reduction in the frequency of life-threatening events, encouraging the biotech to keep studying the candidate.

Amid high-profile injectable launch, Novo Nordisk scores with its pill version of obesity drug Wegovy

Diabetes and weight loss juggernaut Novo Nordisk has presented data from a phase 3 trial that show an oral version of its obesity drug Wegovy performs comparably to its original injected therapy. In the study, patients who received a 50 mg daily dose lost an average of 15.1% of their weight over 68 weeks compared to 2.4% for those on placebo.

Mirati's long wait for next lung cancer med ends in phase 3 failure

After a five and a half month wait, Mirati Therapeutics finally has the answer it’s been waiting for on a lung cancer med called sitravatinib. The therapy didn't work.

AbbVie, Genmab's lymphoma drug Epkinly snags FDA approval in heated blood cancer race

AbbVie and Genmab's CD20-targeted bispecific epcoritamab has won an FDA blessing in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The drug boasts what analysts view as a best-in-class profile against potential competition from Roche and Regeneron.

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.

The clock's ticking on Stelara: Amgen, J&J ink patent settlement

After the recent high-profile loss of exclusivity for AbbVie's megablockbuster immunology drug Humira, industry watchers' eyes moved to Johnson & Johnson's Stelara as one of the next major drugs expected to face biosimilar competition. Tuesday, the industry got more information about when exactly that clash might occur.
 
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'The Top Line': The 20 most influential people in biopharma, plus this week's headlines

This week on "The Top Line," we discuss the 20 most influential people in biopharma, plus a topical gene therapy, a new opioid overdose medication, and the rest of the week's headlines.
 

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