Rare diseases
As both Taysha Gene Therapies and Neurogene warm up for an important year of readouts, the Rett syndrome community is hopeful of seeing a therapy that can truly change the disease’s path.
RNAi specialist Alnylam Pharmaceuticals will advance the Huntington’s disease drug brezosiran into a placebo-controlled study in 2027 once regulatory alignment is achieved.
After cardiac safety signals led to a full clinical hold on Aardvark Therapeutics’ studies of ARD-101, the biotech conducted an additional safety study, in which no cardiac events were detected. Aardvark plans to resume testing the candidate next year.
Troriluzole, in development for spinocerebellar ataxia, was rejected nearly a year ago when the FDA took issue with the design of Biohaven’s registrational study. The agency has now agreed to review a new application and render a decision in the first quarter of 2027.
China cracks down on some biotechnology ownership transfers—but will the new policy impact licensing deals?; Disc Medicine’s Phase 3 data sweep redeems rejected rare disease therapy, teeing up another FDA run; and the ESMO conference gets underway in Madrid this week, with much-anticipated data from Merck, and Summit Therapeutics.
Disc Medicine’s bitopertin—rejected by the FDA in February—significantly reduced levels of a key disease biomarker and significantly increased the time patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria were able to spend in the sun and artificial light.
Johnson & Johnson beat analyst expectations in the third quarter but left Wall Street wanting more; BMS dominated the news cycle on Monday with a Phase 3 win validating its $4.1 billion RayzeBio buy and mixed data in a late-stage pulmonary fibrosis trial; Revolution Medicines’ newly approved pancreatic cancer drug works better for patients with certain mutations; and Caribou Biosciences may be on its way out.
While Alnylam’s recent reduced revenue guidance spooked investors, analysts remain broadly bullish on the biotech’s commercial prospects.
The centerpiece of Bristol Myers Squibb’s 2024 RayzeBio buy has read out, hitting the primary endpoint in a late-stage tumor trial.
Leveraging recently proposed regulatory flexibilities, the gene-editing sector is working to cut R&D costs and unlock indications that were previously economically unviable, according to a new playbook published by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.
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