Ex-Kite leader helms new Versant biotech

Today’s Big News

Jun 13, 2024

UPDATE: Pfizer's phase 3 gene therapy trial fails to improve function for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy


With MDMA debate spreading beyond biotech, Lykos CEO tries to dispel efficacy, safety concerns


Inflammatory disease biotech launches with $168M and ex-Kite leader at the helm


Barinthus lays off 25% of staff, sidelines prostate cancer program to stretch out cash


Ultragenyx wins surrogate endpoint debate, securing green light to seek FDA approval of gene therapy


AbbVie joins TL1A race via $150M upfront deal with China's FutureGen


Digital Medicine Society partners with pharma giants for new digital endpoints project

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UPDATE: Pfizer's phase 3 gene therapy trial fails to improve function for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Pfizer’s phase 3 gene therapy trial has failed to demonstrate significant improvement in motor function for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
 

Top Stories

With MDMA debate spreading beyond biotech, Lykos CEO tries to dispel efficacy, safety concerns

A week after an FDA committee declined to support an MDMA treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, Lykos Therapeutics is looking to dispel some concerns about the therapy as the discussion has taken on a life of its own beyond the biotech world.

Inflammatory disease biotech launches with $168M and ex-Kite leader at the helm

With a former Kite leader at the helm, Santa Ana Bio has unveiled with $168 million and three precision medicine antibodies slated to enter the clinic next year.  

Innovation, Partnerships & Progress: How Life Sciences Is Booming in Maryland’s Montgomery County

Drive or take the metro in any direction within Montgomery County, Maryland, and you'll come across a life science company responsible for a major innovation.

Barinthus lays off 25% of staff, sidelines prostate cancer program to stretch out cash

Barinthus Biotherapeutics has used positive interim data from a pair of phase 2 trials for its hepatitis B therapy as justification for sidelining its prostate cancer candidate and jettisoning a quarter of the T-cell-focused biotech’s workforce.

Ultragenyx wins surrogate endpoint debate, securing green light to seek FDA approval of gene therapy

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical's work to get the FDA to recognize a biomarker as a surrogate endpoint looks to have paid off. With the agency agreeing the biomarker is a reasonable surrogate endpoint, Ultragenyx is preparing to file for approval of its Sanfilippo syndrome gene therapy around the end of the year.

AbbVie joins TL1A race via $150M upfront deal with China's FutureGen

AbbVie has become the latest Big Pharma to jump on the anti-TL1A train, paying China’s FutureGen Biopharmaceutical $150 million upfront for a preclinical inflammatory bowel disease candidate.

Digital Medicine Society partners with pharma giants for new digital endpoints project

Abbvie, Merck, Roche's Genentech, Sanofi and other big names in biopharma have signed on to a new project from the Digital Medicine Society’s Digital Health Measurement Collaborative Community that aims to set industry benchmarks for digital endpoints in clinical trials.

WuXi shares jump after BIOSECURE Act's exclusion from defense spending bill

The BIOSECURE Act was officially left off of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was the expected first step to the bill's passage.

BMS chief Boerner says company is still open to deals after spending more than $20B on M&A last year

As some pharma giants pump the brakes on big M&A deals, Bristol Myers Squibb—hot off a series of rapid-fire acquisitions in 2023—says it still has dealmaking cash to deploy if the right target comes along.
 
Fierce podcasts

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A look at the top 10 pharma drug ad spenders

In this week’s episode of “The Top Line,” the Fierce Pharma Marketing team discusses the annual top pharma drug ad spenders special report.
 

Resources

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Enhance your long-term cell & gene therapy success with pDNA manufacturing solutions

Watch our on-demand webinar video to learn more about the challenges in pDNA manufacturing for gene and cell therapy and how to resolve many of these barriers by partnering with our experts through the adoption of vital manufacturing technologies and strategies.
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A Comprehensive and Flexible Approach to CMC for Fab and Fc-Fusion Development Programs

New molecular formats are gaining momentum in today’s market. Characterizing these products and developing robust manufacturing processes can help to usher them to market and provide new treatment options for diseases which are currently challenging to treat. Read this white paper to learn more.
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Fresenius Medical Care gets 25x faster kidney disease insights

This detailed case study shows how Fresenius Medical Care achieved 25 times faster insights to help kidney disease patients, launching the world’s largest global database of dialysis care with fully anonymized patient data.
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Adding Rare Disease Products to Your Company’s Portfolio

This paper outlines the challenges, pitfalls, & solutions associated with adding rare disease therapies to a biopharma company’s portfolio.
 

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On Helix

Date: ‌4 ‌July ‌2024 ‌- ‌Location: ‌Babraham ‌Research ‌Campus, ‌Cambridge ‌UK

 

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