BioSpace

• “Perfect Patient” Industry Burdens; Exits and Investment in Women’s Health

  Miruna Sasu, CEO of COTA, has been labeled as a disrupter in the industry. In this episode, she discusses the challenges of stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria of clinical trials. She also dives into her main takeaways from this year's JP Morgan Healthcare Conference and Scope Summit around exits and investment in women's health.Host⁠⁠⁠Lori Ellis⁠⁠⁠, Head of Insights, BioSpaceGuests⁠Miruna Sasu⁠, President and CEO, COTADisclaimer: The views expressed in this discussion by guests are their own and do not represent those of their organizations.

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• COVID Reflections, Novo’s Next-Gen Weight Loss Struggles, Another Depression Miss, More

  As we mark five years since the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic, the BioSpace editorial team reflects on the health crisis of a generation and how it changed us—and the biopharma industry. While companies like Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna raked in billions from their vaccines, J&J and Novavax struggled to capture a significant piece of the market.   Five years later, much has changed. A substantial number of us now work from the comfort of our homes—though that may be changing for some in the life sciences—and biopharma has a new obsession: obesity. In this space, Novo Nordisk has had a rough week, reporting lower-than-expected results from a second straight trial of its next-gen weight loss drug CagriSema. And in an effort to protect revenues from its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, Novo jumped into the legal battle between the FDA and compounding pharmacies over the regulator’s decision to declare the shortage of Wegovy over. Viking Therapeutics had a better week, securing “multiple metric tons” of its investigational obesity medication VK2735 in a deal with CordenPharma. Meanwhile, companies continue to tackle adverse events associated with GLP-1s.  Another space that has seen its fair share of failures in the past couple of years is depression. The latest flop comes from J&J, which announced it would discontinue its a kappa opioid receptor blocker aticaprant after a disappointing Phase III readout. J&J joins Biogen and Sage Therapeutics, Relmada Therapeutics and Alto Neuroscience, all of whom have suffered regulatory misses or trial flops. Finally, two of Donald Trump’s healthcare nominees, Marty Makary and Jay Bhattacharya, sailed through their confirmation hearings in the Senate last week. Both are up for confirmation on Thursday.   

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• Tariff Threat Continues, More Meetings Cancelled, AbbVie Makes Obesity Play, More

  Donald Trump’s tariffs have headlined myriad news stories this week—including at BioSpace, where we reported Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla’s claim that his company is prepared to reshore manufacturing if the president makes good on threats made last month. Eli Lilly also appears to be preparing, commiting $27 billion to boost its U.S. manufacturing capacity.   Meanwhile, another regulatory meeting has been canceled under new HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Reuters revealed last week that an upcoming meeting of the FDA’s external advisers for vaccine policy on March 13 has been canceled—just a week after the CDC Vaccine Advisory Board’s first meeting of 2025 was postponed. Also on the policy front, BioSpace took a deep dive into priority review vouchers (PRVs) after Congress failed to reauthorize the rare pediatric disease PRV program at the end of 2024. Our reporting shows this will be painful for many biopharma companies who rely on funds from the sale of PRVs.   Speaking of money, AbbVie and Eli Lilly struck a pair of mid-size deals in hot spaces. AbbVie made a late obesity play this week, inking a licensing deal worth up to $2.2 billion with service provider Gubra to bring a long-acting amylin drug to the market, while Lilly hopped onto the hot molecular glue train, paying more than $1.2 billion in a licensing deal with Magnet Biomedicine.  Finally, we examined the somewhat lethargic immuno-oncology space, which has companies, including BMS, Roche, Summit Therapeutics and BeiGene, targeting TIGIT, VEGF, RAS and more in their quest to bring the next Keytruda—which led the way in 2024 as the world’s best-selling drug—to the market.  

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• A Conversation With Kevin Marks, CEO of Delphia

  On the sidelines of this year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, BioSpace Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong sat down with Kevin Marks, CEO of Delphia Therapeutics, a member of BioSpace’s ⁠NextGen Class of 2025⁠. Their discussion here focused on the company’s novel science of activation lethality, which involves forcing cancer cells to overactivate and thereby overload cell stress pathways, as well as Delphia's relatively smooth path to a $67 million series A raise thanks to contributions from Google Ventures (GV), where Marks was previously employed.This is the second episode in a special series of The Weekly focused on how NextGen companies are navigating the current business environment.Host⁠Annalee Armstrong⁠, Senior Editor, BioSpaceGuest⁠Kevin Marks⁠, President and CEO, Delphia TherapeuticsFor a complete list of NextGen 2025 companies, ⁠click here⁠.

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  18:06
• Money Meets Medicine: A Disruptor's Guide to Life Sciences Investment

  Miruna Sasu, CEO of COTA, has been labeled as a disrupter in the industry. In this discussion, she highlights the challenges of investing in the life sciences industry. She also suggests how the investor mindset needs to change as well as offer solutions that benefit both investors and developers seeking investment.Host⁠⁠Lori Ellis⁠⁠, Head of Insights, BioSpaceGuestsMiruna Sasu, President and CEO, COTADisclaimer: The views expressed in this discussion by guests are their own and do not represent those of their organizations.

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