Policy

Cell and gene therapy investment rebounds; WuXi Biologics and other companies named in BIOSECURE Act mull options; Bayer, J&J and Pfizer’s recent layoffs; updates from the weight loss space.

WuXi AppTec looks to unload its Philadelphia manufacturing sites and WuXi Biologics slows its rapid expansion in the U.S. as the companies await the Senate’s review of the BIOSECURE Act that threatens to cut them off from U.S. biopharma.

The adjusted guidelines will provide drugmakers with more opportunities to engage with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding the initial maximum fair price offers, according to the agency.

The Financial Times reported Thursday that WuXi AppTec is looking to sell its cell and gene therapy manufacturing unit, with facilities in Philadelphia, while WuXi Biologics wants to offload some of its production sites in Europe.

Bristol Myers Squibb wins approval for the first novel schizophrenia drug in decades; Pfizer pulls Oxbryta from the market; new IVF and abortion laws could derail women’s health research; Roche touts CDK inhibitor deal and obesity pipeline and BioSpace heads to Meeting on the Mesa.

Women are already underrepresented in clinical trials; the new abortion and IVF laws could make it worse.

Many Big Pharma companies including Pfizer, Merck and BMS make the drugs that some researchers expect to be selected by CMS for next year’s Medicare price negotiations alongside analysts’ top pick, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic.

New revelations from the showdown between Novo Nordisk’s CEO and Bernie Sanders’ Senate health committee Tuesday; PhRMA’s legal victory in IRA case; the federal interest rate cut and anticipated approval for schizophrenia.

A lawsuit filed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which claims the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is unconstitutional, now goes back to a lower Texas court.

While unlikely to pass this year, given the Democrats’ control over the White House and Senate, the proposed legislation might be a harbinger of the Republicans’ agenda next year for the Inflation Reduction Act should they win the November elections.