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Today's Rundown

Featured Story

Sanofi dumps Principia Biopharma's San Francisco labs with plans to immediately cut 38 jobs

In a one-two punch for Principia Biopharma, Sanofi plans to shutter the company's San Francisco-based drug discovery laboratories by the end of the year and immediately cut 38 jobs, the French pharma told Fierce Biotech.

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Top Stories

Moderna, AbCellera join forces to tackle major mRNA opportunity

Moderna’s early vision, years before it became synonymous with COVID-19 vaccines, was to “enable the body to produce its own healing proteins.” Infectious disease and cancer vaccines later rose up the list of priorities at Moderna, but work on the original plan continued—and is now getting a boost through a pact with the industry’s go-to antibody shop AbCellera.

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Amylyx can proceed with ALS submission to FDA afterall, marking a win for patients’ advocacy efforts

The FDA has done a U-turn on Amylyx’s amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug AMX0035. After asking for a new phase 3 study in April, the agency will now accept the biotech’s submission based on phase 2 evidence.

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Sponsored: Four Steps to Smarter, More Dynamic Deployment

Are you using data and analytics to design smarter campaigns and more effective sales rep deployment?

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Theravance axing 75% of staff, slashing R&D budget after flunking phase 3

Theravance Biopharma’s rotten run has triggered big changes at the biotech. With a phase 3 rare disease study becoming the third trial to fail in as many months, Theravance is axing 75% of its staff and narrowing its focus to respiratory diseases. 

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Tyra Biosciences banks $173M to bring cancer resistance programs into clinic

Tyra Biosciences is the latest biotech to rake in an upsized IPO. Its $172.8 million deal will push three programs targeting drug-resistant cancers into the clinic. The company will start trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “TYRA” on Wednesday. It expects the funds to support its work through at least 2024, according to a securities filing.

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Haisco to pay $140M to get the ball rolling on Biosplice's phase 3 osteoarthritis drug in China

Haisco Pharmaceutical will pay Biosplice Therapeutics $140 million to license the San Diego biotech's knee osteoarthritis drug candidate. Haisco also snags rights to the treatment, lorecivivint, for other musculoskeletal conditions in China.

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Novo Nordisk Foundation teams up with Broad Institute, Harvard for diabetes, obesity research hub

The Novo Nordisk Foundation, part of the Danish pharma Novo Group, is stumping up $47.5 million for a new research collab between the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

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Mesa Labs puts $300M on the table for genetic testing developer Agena Bioscience

Within the first year of the buyout, Mesa said it expects Agena to bring in between $63 million and $67 million in revenue, plus an additional $3 million to $5 million in COVID testing revenue.

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Newly discovered immune cells block melanoma metastasis in mice and could inspire new treatments

A research team led by Dartmouth discovered T cells in the lymph nodes that stay put and have the power to kill melanoma cells before they can spread. They believe that as they build their understanding of how the cells work, they may find new therapeutic methods for preventing metastasis.

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Citing 'less-than-optimal' outcomes for Roche's Evrysdi, Biogen launches high-dose Spinraza trial

While much of the attention on Biogen lately has centered on its launch of controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, the company is also feeling the heat from a new challenger in spinal muscular atrophy. After analyzing data around its rival, Biogen has unveiled plans to run a high-dose trial for its drug in patients who've had prior treatment with Evrysdi.

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KFF: Systemwide costs of preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations nearly tripled to $5.7B in August

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated there were 287,000 vaccine-preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations from June to August, with nearly two-thirds of that burden coming in the last month alone.

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Resources

Whitepaper: Applications of Digital Twins in Clinical Trials for Alzheimer’s Disease

Read Unlearn’s whitepaper to learn about how novel trial designs with Digital Twins enable more efficient clinical trials, with higher power and smaller required sample sizes.

Whitepaper: Evaluating current manufacturing platforms for recombinant AAV production

Choose the right AAV platform for your viral vector-based therapy

Whitepaper: The Value of Precision Medicine Informatics Initiatives Research Findings

Download the Value of Precision Medicine Informatics (PMI) Initiatives report to learn about the technology, data types, and the value derived from more than 100 PMI initiatives.

Whitepaper: Challenging Tradition: The Argument for Integrated Commercialization to Improve Operational Agility

Today’s economics do not allow manufactures to keep making decisions in an antiquated way. They need to challenge tradition & deliver faster, cheaper, successful launches. Learn how.

Whitepaper: High-yield NK cell culture for allogeneic cell therapy applications

Thermo Fisher Scientific introduces a new NK cell culture medium designed to support feeder-free, high-yield growth for cell therapy applications.

Whitepaper: Going from Process R&D to Clinical APIs Quickly and Effectively

Read four customer success stories and four success factors that helped move pharmaceutical customers of Cascade Chemistry by Aceto quickly and effectively to clinic with trial-ready APIs.

Webinar: Let A Digital Sherpa Uncomplicate The Path for Patients

Topple barriers to getting patients started on therapy. Guide them with mobile.

eBook: Get solutions to market faster

Read Get to Know Cloud Content Management for Life Sciences and learn how to eliminate silos across all workflows, from R&D to commercialization.

eBrief: Drug Product Process Development: Ensuring a Consistent, High-quality Biologic

Learn about drug product process development challenges and risks, the difference between innovator and biosimilar drug product process development, and more during the drug product process development phase.

Whitepaper: Achieving a Successful Drug Product Technology Transfer

Get insights on key considerations for a successful tech transfer process for manufacturing a biologic drug product, including a case study on overcoming challenges in a process transfer for a sterile diluent.

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