Akebia anemia drug misses mark in COVID trial
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Today's Rundown

Featured Story

Galapagos cleans closet of another 4 programs to make room for CAR-T ambitions

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Galapagos had already trimmed all the fat it could off its pipeline, but the Belgian biotech has managed to find another four early-stage programs worthy of being culled in favor of its CAR-T strategy.

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Top Stories

Amgen takes BiTEs out of pipeline, dropping BCMA, PSMA assets in light of data and competition

Amgen is bowing out of the congested BCMA race. With a who’s who of drug developers going after the multiple myeloma target, the big biotech has decided to stop work on its bispecific contender as part of a cull that also saw it pick between its two PSMA prospects.

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Akebia’s anemia drug faces further setback after just missing in a COVID-19 trial

Akebia’s ambitions for its drug vadadustat has gotten knocked back once again. Less than five months after the FDA dashed the biotech's hopes to market the med for anemia, the therapy has failed to scrape through in a trial of COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome.

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‘A negative trial, not a failed trial’: Neurocrine axes in-licensed tremor program on phase 2 data

Two years after licensing the asset for $45 million upfront, Neurocrine Biosciences has pulled the plug on the development of NBI-827104 in essential tremor after the failure of a phase 2a clinical trial to make the case for further investment.

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Merck plans to count coughs and months until gefapixant is back in FDA hands

Merck & Co. is going to be counting coughs and months until the P2X3 receptor antagonist medicine gefapixant is back before regulators.

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More than a year into a full rebuild, Voyager is casting its clinical sails towards the central nervous system

More than a year in a full rebuild, Voyager Therapeutics says it has set its sights on the central nervous system as clinical route for its pipeline. The company's top-3 assets are aimed at Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and ALS, respectively.

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Pieris trims fat with phase 2 cancer drug culls to focus on AstraZeneca asthma collab

Pieris Pharmaceuticals is trimming the fat, putting its lead immuno-oncology asset on the chopping block to make more room for its AstraZeneca partnership. With the readout AstraZeneca-partnered phase 2 asthma drug now delayed to next year, Pieris has decided to cut it's only clinical-stage independent asset.

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'The Top Line' podcast: Why early pandemic meds are throwing in the towel, how companies' pipelines have changed this earnings season, plus more

This week on "The Top Line," we explore why many early pandemic therapeutics are now throwing in the towel. We also chat about earnings season, and how biotechs' pipelines have changed, even the stuff that companies are less keen to talk about.

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Looking east, Sanofi pens 'pioneering' cancer drug partnership with China's Innovent

When it comes to global market expansion, many Big Pharmas have their eye on China—and clearly Sanofi is no exception. The French drugmaker has signed a cancer-focused deal with Suzhou-based Innovent, focused on developing and rolling out two of Sanofi’s oncology assets.

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A change of heart: Individual genetic factors could lead to customized cardiac therapies

New research indicates that different individual genetic factors could lead to differing pathways to heart failure, a discovery that paves the way for potential customizable therapies.

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New 'off-the-shelf' stem cell CAR-T to be the basis of company born out of Boston Children’s Hospital and ElevateBio

ElevateBio and Boston Children's Hospital unveiled the first spinoff company from their collaboration announced more than a year ago. The unnamed company will be based on new research showing how a new stem cell-based CAR-T could be effective at killing off tumors.

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Engineered native gut bacteria shows promise to treat diabetes

Past research has faced challenges using bacteria cultured in the lab as therapeutics. Now scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found that native E. coli could be genetically modified to treat chronic disease in the host.

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Chutes & Ladders—Astellas shakes up leadership with two new C-suite execs

Astellas replaces two outgoing executives, including CMO Zeiher. Nektar's former commercial chief Northcott finds a new gig at Arvinas. Wegner resigns after 10 years at Evaxion.

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Fierce Pharma Asia—Sanofi's Innovent tie-up; Astellas' new medical chief; AbbVie's Sosei neurological pact

Sanofi has formed an oncology alliance with Eli Lilly's PD-1 partner, Innovent Biologics. Astellas named former AstraZeneca oncology exec Tadaaki Taniguchi as its new chief medical officer. AbbVie has tapped Sosei Heptares to develop drugs against neurological disorders. And more.

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eBook: Orally Inhaled & Nasal Drug Delivery: A Pipeline of Opportunities

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