In November 2022, GSK began the process of withdrawing Blenrep’s U.S. marketing authorization after the phase 3 DREAMM-3 trial failed to show an overall survival benefit compared to standard therapy. But GSK has signaled its hope that the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) antibody-drug conjugate could have a new lease on life with new data from…
Fixed-dose macitentan-tadalafil polypill outperforms monotherapies in PAH
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a relatively rare disorder, affecting roughly 15 to 50 people per million within the U.S. and Europe. Treating it with a single therapy can be challenging, and medication adherence often presents a common hurdle for the condition. Combination therapy has thus become a widely used option in the treatment of…
A timeline of Aduhelm’s rise and fall
The story of Aduhelm has been rocky now for years. Biogen turned heads when its controversial Alzheimer’s therapy won accelerated approval from the FDA against the advice of its own advisory panel in mid-2021. The company had high hopes for the antibody at that point, pricing it at an average of $56,000 per year. Aduhelm…
Beyond GLP-1: OrsoBio targets mitochondria to treat metabolic disorders from a new and potentially complementary angle
Emerging from stealth in late 2022, Palo Alto–based biopharma startup OrsoBio announced four development programs targeting severe metabolic disorders. The CEO and founder, Dr. Mani Subramanian and chief medical officer and head of development Dr. Rob Myers formerly worked at Gilead. Founded in 2020 with a quest to “try to modulate energy metabolism in severe…
Employees reveal highs and lows at 8 Big Pharma firms in 2024
Ahead of our deeper Pharma 50 analysis of top pharma firms’ performance, this new 2024 analysis provides a timely snapshot of cultural and innovation metrics across eight of the leading Big Pharma firms. Looking closely at the pivotal issue of “Big Pharma work culture 2024,” we examine data and reviews from the employee site Glassdoor,…
Fauna Bio CEO on tapping extreme mammals for human disease breakthroughs
Could the genetic secrets of “extreme mammals” help unlock treatments for myriad human diseases? The Emeryville, California–based startup Fauna Bio is betting on that premise. One of the animals the firm is studying include the 13-lined ground squirrel, which can double its body weight in fat accumulation in summer before entering hibernation in an obese…
Alliance with Google Cloud the latest to help Atropos Health bridge the evidence gap in medicine
The Stanford spinout Atropos Health, which taps real-world data to analyze patient outcomes, disease trajectories, treatment effectiveness, is joining forces with Google Cloud. The company had already forged an alliance with AWS to offer its real-world evidence offerings on the AWS Marketplace and join the AWS Partner Network. The company’s core aim is to give…
How digital pathology can transform the value of clinical trial information
The field of pathology is gradually going digital, marking a pronounced shift from the traditional use of glass slides, a practice that dates back to the Victorian era. Digital pathology uptake reached an “exponential” pace in the wake of the pandemic, noted Dr. Monika Lamba Saini, pathologist-scientist, director of digital innovation at Q2 Solutions, an…
Why clinicians are the critical link for AI in transforming oncology care
In the third episode of AI Meets Life Sci, Ben Newton, General Manager of Oncology at GE Healthcare, offered a succinct definition of artificial intelligence that harkens back to the original conception from the 1950s, when researchers gathered at Dartmouth College to lay the groundwork for the field. “AI for me is the simulation of…
Interview: MIT legend Robert Langer backs Lindus Health’s ‘anti-CRO’ strategy
Biotech startup Lindus Health just made a big splash by adding MIT professor and Moderna co-founder Robert Langer, Sc.D., to its advisory board. Lindus aims to shake up the world of clinical trials with its “anti-CRO” approach that promises faster and more reliable trials for life sciences companies. The addition of Langer, described as the…
Culmination Bio partners with Merck on disease-agnostic patient data
The bioinformatics startup Culmination Bio had received financial backing from Merck’s venture arm. Now, the Utah-based company is collaborating directly with the pharmaceutical giant on an autoimmune disease research project. According to Culmination Bio‘s CEO Dr. Lincoln Nadauld, the collaboration highlights the value of the startup’s ability to provide rapid access to high-quality longitudinal patient…
M&A strong at the dawn of 2024, but it’s too early to tell if it will match 2023 levels
The biopharma sector appears to be gearing up for a dynamic year of merger and acquisition activity in 2024. Analysts at EY indicate the sector could see between $225 billion and $275 billion in total deal value, in line with 2023’s roughly $238 billion. In the first 24 days of January this year, there were…
Inside Amgen’s ATOMIC strategy to use ML to accelerate clinical trials
Amgen has developed a machine learning platform to slash clinical trial times through smarter site selection. Known as ATOMIC, short for Analytical Trial Optimization Module, the system crunches disparate datasets to predict optimal trial locations, expedite enrollment and trial processes. Early results indicate more than a two times increase in enrollment speed at ATOMIC sites.…
Rice Biotech Launch Pad plans to make Houston a top-tier biotech hub
Houston boasts many world-class assets that have made it a formidable player on the global stage. From the world’s largest medical complex to mission control for the cosmos, few other cities can compete with its diverse strengths. Houston is also home to the prestigious Rice University, renowned for its leading science and engineering programs. Houston,…
Supercomputer-based Bayesian approach to AI pays dividends for BPGbio
In an AI hype-filled biopharma industry, one company is taking a back-to-basics yet supercomputer-powered approach — using Bayesian analysis on massive patient datasets to guide drug discovery. The company crunches trillions of data points per patient. “It’s massive, which is why we use a supercomputer,” said Niven R. Narain, Ph.D., BPGbio CEO. The company has…
Caribou Biosciences’ CEO discusses CRISPR progress, future goals, and gender equality in biotech
Founded in 2011, Caribou Biosciences is a pioneer in the development of CRISPR genome editing technologies, a field honored with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. Co-founded by Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., one of the Nobel laureates, and CEO Rachel Haurwitz, and two other CRISPR pioneers, the company has raised over $800 million in funding,…
Lumen Bioscience cracks the code on spirulina as a biologics factory for c. diff, metabolic disease and more
Clostridioides difficile, commonly known as C. diff, is a significant health threat in the U.S. Recent estimates suggest that C. diff, a common bacteria, can cause infection in roughly 500,000 patients annually in the U.S., with around 30,000 of these cases resulting in death. “Actually, it’s more like 5 million when you think about it…
Moving beyond buzzwords: When will a rising AI tide lift all Big Pharma boats?
For all of the talk about AI in drug discovery and development, few Big Pharmas are putting up big bucks in AI spending. A CRB survey from late 2023 painted a conservative picture: about half of drug developers planned on allocating between $1 and $10 million for data and AI projects over the next two…
Could an ‘extreme’ hibernating ground squirrel unlock new obesity treatments?
In late 2023, Eli Lilly, whose stock is now up close to 80% over the past year, inked a deal with the Emeryville, California–based Fauna Bio potentially worth $494 million that focuses on the discovery of novel drug targets for treating obesity. In 2020, Fauna entered into an obesity-focused collaboration with Novo Nordisk, Lilly’s primary…
Antibody-drug conjugates, genomics, and more: Key trends at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
The 2024 JPMorgan Healthcare Conference showcased the resilience and innovation driving the biotech sector, even as the sector has recently grappled with financial headwinds such as declining IPOs, layoffs, and tightening cash reserves. Companies are tightening operations while still pushing forward in developing novel technologies like machine learning for drug discovery, cell and gene therapies,…
Deepcell’s CEO forges her own path to transforming cell science with AI and microfluidics
Deepcell co-founder Maddison Masaeli took an unexpected path from academic research to launching an AI-powered cell analysis platform. The company has raised close to $100 million in funding to support its mission. This includes a $73 million Series B round and an earlier $20 million Series A round. The company has entered into a research…
Biotech bounces back at JPM 2024 on optimism, breakthroughs and calculated bets, but uncertainties persist
At the dawn of 2024, there’s a sense of renewed optimism in the biotech sector despite recent sector-specific challenges. This week, the JP Morgan Health Care Conference witnessed strong deal-making activity. For instance, Merck agreed to acquire cancer drug developer Harpoon Therapeutics for roughly $680 million, highlighting continued interest in oncology cancer therapies. Meanwhile, Novartis…
Recursion partners with NVIDIA to unveil Phenom-Beta, democratizing access to its $1 Billion phenomics investment
In sync with the JP Morgan Health Care Conference, Recursion Pharmaceuticals has unveiled Phenom-Beta, a deep learning model designed to transform cell microscopy images into meaningful biological representations. “Phenom-Beta allows you to take images of human cells from a microscope or other sources and turn them into mathematical representations of biology,” said Chris Gibson, CEO…
Amgen, Deepcell tap NVIDIA’s AI to drive drug discovery and advance cell morphology research
In 2023, generative AI (GenAI) entered the mainstream, capturing the attention of both the public and a growing number of biotechs. One of the most prominent Big Tech firms driving the trend is NVIDIA, which has forged alliances with biotechs ranging from Genentech, Recursion Pharmaceuticals and Evozyne, among others. The momentum is continuing in early…
Medable: AI-powered platform can halve trial build times
Decentralized clinical trial pioneer Medable unveiled an intelligent automation technology at the JP Morgan Health Care Conference, claiming it can slash standard trial build timelines by at least 50%. This development hinges around electronic clinical outcomes assessment (eCOA) — a common bottleneck in trial startups. “We’ve used AI to essentially take a protocol and translate…