FDA weighs restricting PD-1s in stomach cancer

Today’s Big News

Aug 22, 2024

After $213M round, gene editing biotech Tome shrinks operations amid worsening investor sentiment


With 36% increase, Eli Lilly leads industry-wide sales boom in Q2


FDA weighs limiting PD-1 drugs in stomach cancer, calls on experts to discuss Merck, BMS and BeiGene meds


Bavarian Nordic shares jump as it logs new vaccine order in global fight against mpox


Despite mixed market, a venture capital revival could be coming in Europe: PitchBook


HHS kicks off vaccine awareness campaign to reduce risk of COVID, flu and RSV


LinkedIn post lands Vertex in hot water with MHRA over breach of UK ad regulations

 

Featured

After $213M round, gene editing biotech Tome shrinks operations amid worsening investor sentiment

After raising $213 million in 2023—one of the year’s largest private biotech rounds—Tome Biosciences is making cuts.
 

Top Stories

With 36% increase, Eli Lilly leads industrywide sales boom in Q2

The momentum the biopharma industry showed in the first quarter of 2024 continued into the second quarter as 21 of the industry's top 25 companies achieved year-over-year revenue increases. Once again, the dominant players were the sellers of GLP-1 diabetes and obesity drugs Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which saw revenue boosts of 36% and 27%, respectively.

FDA weighs limiting PD-1 drugs in stomach cancer, calls on experts to discuss Merck, BMS and BeiGene meds

The FDA will hold an advisory committee meeting on Sept. 26 to consider whether approvals for checkpoint inhibitors in advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma—as well as in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)—should be restricted based on a tumor’s PD-L1 expression.

Bavarian Nordic shares jump as it logs new vaccine order in global fight against mpox

The company reported a new order of its smallpox and mpox vaccine, Jynneos, from an undisclosed European country. The procurement deal adds to a list of several recent orders for the company.

Despite mixed market, a venture capital revival could be coming in Europe: PitchBook

While the biotech investment scene in Europe has shrunk somewhat following a COVID-19 funding boom in 2021, a new report from PitchBook suggests venture capital firms looking at opportunities across the pond could soon have more cash to spare.

HHS kicks off vaccine awareness campaign to reduce risk of COVID, flu and RSV

As summer winds down in the U.S. and the colder months creep closer, so too does the annual respiratory virus season, when highly contagious diseases like influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus make the rounds.

LinkedIn post lands Vertex in hot water with MHRA over breach of UK ad regulations

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has ruled Vertex broke the U.K. drug regulations with a LinkedIn post, prompting the big biotech to review its social media policies.

Tweaking one setting on mechanical ventilators may help protect patients from lung injury

In the decades that modern ventilation has been in use, it has contended with a serious side effect: lung injury. While the patient needs air, pushing too much of it into the lungs in the wrong way can end up causing lasting harm, including multiorgan failure and death.

Novartis, Versant hope to repeat Chinook’s success by arming kidney biotech Borealis with $150M

Novartis’ $3.2 billion deal for Chinook Therapeutics gave the Swiss Big Pharma such a taste for kidney disease-focused biotechs that it has partnered with VC firm Versant Ventures to create another company in a similar mold.

First real-world analysis of Merck's Ebola vaccine reveals 84% effectiveness during DRC outbreak

Researchers looked at data from the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to gauge the real-world benefits of using Merck's vaccine Ervebo.

Ex-GSK CEO takes up board post at aging and obesity biotech BioAge

BioAge Labs has appointed former GSK CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier as chair of its board of directors, bringing the pharma veteran back into the anti-aging space 16 years after he made a big bet on the sector.

Eli Lilly seeks new angle on high-value target, tapping Oblique for antibody discovery push

Eli Lilly has expanded its partnership with Oblique Therapeutics, adding a second strand to an alliance focused on using the AbiProt platform to discover antibodies against high-value targets.

Despite looming BIOSECURE threat, pharma contracting giant WuXi Bio scoops up new projects

Despite some Western drugmakers’ concerns around working with Chinese manufacturers in light of the looming BIOSECURE Act, WuXi Biologics continues to pick up a steady stream of new contracts, the company said.
 
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