Plus our top stories of the week

This Week

Oct 13, 2023

Biogen lays off staffers at newly acquired Reata, with 113 set to lose positions


Flush with Wegovy cash, Novo Nordisk's owner widens investment strategy beyond biotech


Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drugs pose small risk of severe stomach complications: study


After pandemic sugar rush, a market 'hangover' opens biotech to funding approaches steeped in stigma


Bristol Myers Squibb buys Mirati for up to $5.8B as I-O giant branches out into targeted therapy for cancer


Eikon cuts staff 'to become more efficient,' letter from CEO Roger Perlmutter reveals

 

Featured

Biogen lays off staffers at newly acquired Reata, with 113 set to lose positions

Just two weeks after Biogen completed its buyout of Reata Pharmaceuticals, the combined company is trimming its staff. Reata staffers who worked in roles that are already covered at Biogen are losing their jobs.
 

Top Stories

Flush with Wegovy cash, Novo Nordisk's owner widens investment strategy beyond biotech

Outside of a global pandemic, it’s rare for a medicine to truly become a household name. But Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy is rapidly reaching that status, with the obesity drug accruing more front pages and celebrity endorsers every day.

Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drugs pose small risk of severe stomach complications: study

People who use Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss drugs are taking on a small risk of developing severe stomach problems, according to research conducted by the University of British Columbia. The investigation indicates a link between Novo’s GLP-1 products and gastroparesis, pancreatitis and bowel obstruction. Still, the investigators emphasized that the risk was very small.

After pandemic sugar rush, a market 'hangover' opens biotech to funding approaches steeped in stigma

You're not going to hear a private biotech trumpeting a down round as they announce a new batch of funding, but industry experts say the broader market trend has seeped into the sector. That's because a down round used to ring red-hot alarm bells. But as valuations change, investors say the meaning of a down round might too.

Bristol Myers Squibb buys Mirati for up to $5.8B as I-O giant branches out into targeted therapy for cancer

After years serving as a rumored target of Big Pharma M&A, Mirati Therapeutics has finally made its sale a reality. The buyer, Bristol Myers Squibb, will pay up to $5.8 billion for the KRAS drugmaker.

Eikon cuts staff 'to become more efficient,' letter from CEO Roger Perlmutter reveals

Eikon Therapeutics, a biotech that snatched several big-name executives from Merck & Co. and raked in some of the largest financing rounds in recent memory, has cut staff in an effort to “become more efficient.”

Doudna lab finds chromosome loss from CRISPR-Cas9 is common—and swapping steps is key to stopping it

The lab of Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna showed that CRISPR can lead to a phenomenon known as chromosome loss in T cells, but that preventing it lies in the order of gene editing operations.

Best Buy to begin selling CGMs, starting with Dexcom G7 sensor

This holiday season, the hottest electronic on sale at Best Buy just might be a continuous glucose monitor.

In cutting sales guidance, EuroAPI cites CDMO industry struggles and customers' inventory reductions

Flush with business during the COVID pandemic, the CDMO industry is struggling to adjust in the aftermath. Case in point is EuroAPI, which has slashed its projected revenue growth in 2023 from a range of 7% to 8% to a new window of 3% to 5%. The Sanofi spinoff also dropped its earnings estimate for the year.

AbbVie continues winning streak as leading TV drug ad spender while budgets start to swell again

AbbVie has once again taken the lead as the top spender on TV drug advertisements, but, among the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, it appears that all of them are increasing their advertising budgets, reversing the decline in total ad spending observed in the past few months.
 
Fierce podcasts

Don’t miss an episode

'Podnosis': Gaming for better healthcare

In this week's episode of "Podnosis," we explore how video game training can captivate users' minds while also expediting the adoption of new skills and treatments in medicine.
 

Resources

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Improving yield and reproducibility with advanced sample prep

Learn how to get better results from suboptimal biospecimens for NGS and protein analysis.
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Tailored and Targeted Pharmaceutical Marketing at Scale

Learn more about targeted personas for HCP marketing.
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Single-cell Sequencing in Drug Development

Learn how single-cell sequencing speeds up drug development and delivers valuable biological insights.
Webinar

From Lead Optimization to Drug Candidate Triage: A Data-Driven Approach to Drug Discovery

Embark on an in-depth journey through the pivotal Make-Test-Decide Workflow, where collaboration and data-driven decisions play a paramount role in the intricate landscape of drug discovery. Watch now to learn how cloud implementation fosters accessibility and collaboration, revolutionizing research across locations and companies.
Whitepaper

4 ways to cut through the clutter and reach chronic disease patients

Learn how to help patients with chronic diseases access tailored condition and treatment insights in an environment where they are often inundated with one-size-fits-all messaging that doesn’t align with their individual healthcare journey.
Research

Creating a State-of-the-Art Integrated Digital Library Ecosystem

Daiichi Sankyo wanted to create a “single source of truth, the very first place you should go” for content access and rights information. How did they replace five tools with just one?
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Discover seven metaverse use cases for life sciences sales and marketing

From uncertainty to opportunity – Use cases for life sciences organizations to tap into the power of the metaverse and generative AI
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Ensuring a Reliable Biopharmaceutical Supply in the EU

Economic and regulatory factors are making biopharma supply chains more complex in the EU. This paper explores strategies that biopharma companies can use to better manage complexity, cost, and risk.
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Biology Informatics Solutions Brochure

From Assay Development Through Large Molecule Development. Streamline your R&D workflows and gain valuable insights with our Biology Solutions Brochure. Download now to discover how to control your laboratory workflows across various assay techniques, modalities, and data types.
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Achieving Excellence in Tender and Deal Management

Read this paper to learn how pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers can improve their tender and deal management, as well as how to choose a global management platform and the best practices for implementing it.
eBook

An Introduction to Organ-on-a-Chip Technology

Emulate in vivo biology with next-generation in vitro technology.
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Five strategies for enlivening the legacy biopharma campus

Discover five creative and innovative ways to reimagine your legacy biopharma campus and unlock value.

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Five ways to get the most from your lab and manufacturing facilities

Learn more about how you can improve the productivity of your research and manufacturing operations and accelerate the journey from laboratory to saving lives.

Whitepaper

The UX of Rx: Helping Consumers Overcome Adherence Barriers

Learn how pharma marketers and other players in the industry can ease the way for consumers, ultimately improving health outcomes and boosting adherence in five simple steps.
 

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