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Today's Rundown

 

    

   Thank you to IQVIA Biotech for sponsoring Fierce Biotech's
  
2021 Fierce 15 editorial feature.

 

Featured Story

Amicus spins off gene therapy unit in $600M SPAC deal as CEO becomes chief at Caritas

Amicus has endured a tough few years of pipeline flops and a roller coaster stock ride, but now it’s riding the SPAC wave, spinning off its gene therapy unit in a $600 million deal.

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Top Stories

Editas' gene-editing data has company touting prime time based on early vision improvement signals but questions remain

Editas has confirmed safety—and its concept—in a small group of patients who have received the gene-editing therapy EDIT-101. The small amount of data also suggests that the middle dose group is starting to see some signals that their vision may be improving.

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AstraZeneca moves deeper into rare diseases, spending $150M on late-phase hematology prospect

AstraZeneca is continuing to build out its rare disease pipeline, pulling the trigger on an option to buy Caelum Biosciences that it picked up in its takeover of Alexion. The buyout gives AstraZeneca control of a phase 3 treatment for the rare hematology disease light chain amyloidosis.

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Sponsored: Navigating the complexities of oncology clinical trials in an increasingly competitive landscape

With the shift from traditional chemotherapy agents to innovative immuno-oncology drugs and cell and gene therapies, oncology clinical trials have increased in complexity.

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I-Mab hits the deal table with biopharma majors to talk partnerships and investments: report

I-Mab has had a big 12 months, landing an $180 million upfront from AbbVie and delivering a series of readouts from clinical trials. Now, the Chinese biotech is reportedly seeking to build on its progress by talking to global biopharma companies about partnerships and investments.

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Sponsored: A New Reference Model for Clinical Trial Recruitment, Enrollment and Retention Success

Rare diseases demand a modern recruitment approach grounded in uncovering the ideal, medically-eligible patient population with the highest propensity for study enrollment and retention.

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Pfizer tightens DMD patient criteria after serious adverse events crop up in phase 3 gene therapy trial

Pfizer is tightening up the criteria for Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients to participate in a phase 3 clinical trial for an experimental gene therapy after three serious adverse events were seen in ongoing studies.

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Iterum will give UTI antibiotic another go with new trial after meeting with FDA

The FDA denied Iterum Therapeutics' antibiotic approval in July, but, after meeting with the regulator last week, the biotech is ready to move forward on another phase 3 trial in uncomplicated urinary tract infections. A trial design could come as early as third-quarter earnings, RBC Capital Markets analysts estimated.

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Novartis, Sanofi-backed Expansion snags $80M for neurodegenerative RNA assets to rival Dyne, Locanabio

Already backed by Sanofi and Novartis' venture arms, Expansion Therapeutics now has another $80 million to bankroll preclinical studies in neurodegenerative diseases. The biotech aims to have the studies done in the coming three years in myotonic dystrophy type 1, ALS and frontotemporal dementia.

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FDA's Marks takes over vaccines office as agency prepares to part ways with 2 key officials

Amid the heated debate over COVID-19 booster shots, two key FDA vaccine experts said they'd be leaving the agency last month. In an effort to smooth over the transition, Peter Marks, director of the agency's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, has officially taken over the FDA's vaccines office on an acting basis.

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Eli Lilly taps Reify Health's Care Access to diversify trials of Verzenio

Having already partnered on trials for Eli Lilly's COVID-19 treatment bamlanivimab, the Indy Big Pharma and Care Access are once again working together on decentralized clinical trials. This time around, they'll work to diversify a phase 3 trial in patients with breast cancer.

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Medtronic's newly acquired radial artery catheters go global with European approval

Barely a year after the Rist radial access catheter technology made its operating room debut in Chicago last September, Medtronic has progressively expanded its availability across the U.S. and now, with a freshly minted CE mark, will also bring the devices overseas.

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In vivo gene editing grabs the spotlight after Intellia triumph, but challenges loom

Investors are enthusiastic about the next generation of gene-focused treatments, most notably in vivo gene editing, which recently got a major boost from Intellia's positive first-in-human data. But all of these companies are advancing their gene therapies at a time when safety concerns are dogging developers of first-generation products.

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Amazon taps VR, voice assistant startups and 8 others for inaugural digital health accelerator

For its first healthcare accelerator program, Amazon's cloud division tapped a diverse group of startups working in virtual reality, voice assistant technology, remote monitoring and social determinants of health.

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Resources

Whitepaper: Big Challenges for Small Sponsors: Competition in Oncology Research

Every biopharma sponsor faces the challenge of initiating, running and closing trials on time, but oncology studies pose several unique hurdles.

Whitepaper: Applications of Digital Twins in Clinical Trials for Neurological Disorders

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.

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.

Events