Half of Adverum pipeline 'snaps out of existence' as adverse events force pivot to more common eye disease Early biopharma investment nears $5B and IPOs are up, but newly public companies face sluggish performance: report Caribou grabs $304M IPO to herd off-the-shelf CAR-Ts into the clinic Lumos delays key hormone deficiency readout as COVID bites Passage Bio hires CMO, CFO replacements after May departures, adds chief commercial officer Novel degrader of cancer-driving protein AKT slows prostate, breast tumors in mice J&J’s COVID-19 shot scores safety backing from CDC experts but booster need left for FDA European Commission launches months-long antitrust investigation into Illumina’s $8B bid for Grail New gene therapy approach shows signs of preventing vision loss from glaucoma Missouri Supreme Court rules state's Medicaid expansion constitutional, reversing lower court's decision Chutes & Ladders—Gilead snags Arcus CMO Bill Grossman to lead pact with...Arcus Fierce Pharma Asia—Junshi's mRNA JV; Novartis' China business; Roche's Ronapreve COVID nod in Japan Featured Story | By Nick Paul Taylor And just like that, half of Adverum Biotechnologies' pipeline is gone. The biotech announced after market Thursday that it would abandon a key eye disease indication and shift focus to another, but analysts aren't sure how the company will overcome the adverse events that sent them in the new, slimmed-down direction. read more |
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Top Stories By Kyle LaHucik Early-stage biopharma investors were on their series A game in the first half of 2021 with nearly $5 billion in cash infusions, while every private biotech and their siblings wanted to hit the public markets. Biopharma funding almost doubled year-over-year to $4.69 billion across the U.S. and Europe for the critical series A round, according to a new report. read more By Amirah Al Idrus Caribou Biosciences is the latest biotech to rake in an upsized IPO. The cell therapy player bagged $304 million in a Wall Street debut, which will see its lead CAR-T program through a first phase 1 readout and propel two prospects toward—and maybe also into—the clinic. read more By Nick Paul Taylor Lumos Pharma has delayed top-line data from its phase 2 pediatric growth hormone deficiency (PGHD) trial to the second half of 2023. The biotech blamed the delay on the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the pace of site initiation and enrollment, particularly at sites outside of the U.S. read more By Kyle LaHucik Passage Bio quickly found replacements for its chief medical and chief financial officers after they departed in May, with the hirings of Mark Forman, M.D., Ph.D., as CMO, and Simona King as CFO. The biotech also named Sarepta Therapeutics' U.S. general manager, Maria Törnsén, as chief commercial officer. read more By Arlene Weintraub Several companies are working on compounds to inhibit AKT, a protein kinase that has been implicated in many cancers. Researchers at Mount Sinai are seeking to degrade the protein rather than just blocking it, and they have early evidence a drug they designed to do just that could hold promise in some prostate and breast cancers. read more By Noah Higgins-Dunn Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine presents greater benefits than it does safety risks, especially amid the quickly spreading Delta variant, a key CDC expert panel decided. However, the panel said that a ruling over the need for a booster added to all COVID shots will have to start with the FDA. read more By Conor Hale Illumina’s antitrust troubles runneth over: The European Commission cited concerns that the vertical takeover of the DNA sequencing giant's former spinout could harm R&D efforts at competing diagnostic developers. read more By Kyle LaHucik Mount Sinai researchers said a study of a gene therapy in mice was able to prevent vision loss and blindness induced by serious retinal injury and diseases such as glaucoma. The approach, which they're working to commercialize, involves reactivating the enzyme CaMKII in retinal ganglion cells. read more By Robert King Missouri's Supreme Court handed Medicaid expansion proponents a major win when it ruled Thursday that the state's ballot initiative expanding the program was constitutional. read more By Kyle LaHucik Gilead hired Arcus Biosciences Chief Medical Officer Bill Grossman to lead the Big Pharma's collaboration with his former employer. Merck oncology executive Nicholas Haining left Big Pharma to join ArsenalBio, a cell therapy biotech he co-founded. And Regeneron's Dupixent program manager joins Tectonic Therapeutic as CMO. read more By Angus Liu Junshi Biosciences has formed a joint venture to develop mRNA drugs and vaccines. Novartis recorded strong growth for its China business in the second quarter. Roche wins global-first full nod for COVID-19 antibody combo Ronapreve in Japan. 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