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Tristan Manalac

Tristan Manalac

Senior Staff Writer

Tristan is BioSpace‘s senior staff writer. Based in Metro Manila, Tristan has more than eight years of experience writing about medicine, biotech and science. Being formally trained in molecular biology, he once dreamed of collecting degrees and starting his own lab. But these days, he finds his greatest joy in a bottle of beer and a beautiful sentence. He can be reached at tristan.manalac@biospace.com, tristan@tristanmanalac.com or on LinkedIn.

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Venture capital
Lilly-Backed China Startup Debuts With $68.7M Seed to Advance Next-Gen T Cell Engagers
Excalipoint Therapeutics will use its seed money to advance a pipeline of cancer therapies, including a tri-specific antibody for small cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine tumors.
March 18, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Funding
R1 Leads Busy Fundraising Day With $77.5M Series A Raise for Kidney Disease
Alongside R1 Therapeutics, Mestag Therapeutics and iDEL Therapeutics also brought in money on Tuesday, helping to push their respective cancer portfolios forward.
March 18, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Earnings
J&J Reigns as Top Pharma by Revenue While Lilly Leapfrogs on Strong Obesity Sales
While Johnson & Johnson retains the top revenue rank across the major pharma companies, Eli Lilly last year established itself as the clear leader in the obesity market, in the process capturing investors’ attention and enthusiasm.
March 18, 2026
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8 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Obesity
Rhythm’s Imcivree Fails Late-Stage Weight Loss Trial in Rare Obesities
The Phase 3 EMANATE study is a basket trial looking at the efficacy of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals’ injectable obesity drug across four types of obesities driven by specific genetic mutations.
March 17, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Deals
Astellas Divorces CytomX Despite Positive Phase 1 Data for Antibody Platform
Astellas Pharma and CytomX Therapeutics first partnered up in March 2020. For $80 million upfront, the Japanese pharma gained access to the biotech’s Probody platform to generate masked antibody therapies for cancer.
March 17, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Legal
Kennedy’s Vaccine Policy Overhaul Stymied by Federal Judge
A Massachusetts judge called Kennedy’s efforts to reform the CDC’s vaccines advisory panel a “procedural failure,” adding that the new committee members do not “comport with governing law.”
March 17, 2026
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Obesity
Structure Climbs on ‘Highly Competitive’ Profile for Weight Loss Pill
Structure Therapeutics’ oral obesity drug elicited a placebo-adjusted weight loss of 16.3% at 44 weeks in a Phase 2 trial. The biotech is planning to launch a late-stage program for the drug later this year.
March 16, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Government
As Midterms Loom, White House Cracks Down on RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policies—but MAHA Resists
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has become increasingly unpopular among several government officials, largely as a result of his antivaccine rhetoric and actions. Other contentious issues reportedly include the approval of an abortion pill and other controversial FDA decisions.
March 16, 2026
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4 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Racing Cars at the finish line
Diabetes
Sana’s Cell Therapy Sustains Insulin Production Through 14 Months in a T1D Patient
Sana Biotechnology is looking to start clinical development for its type 1 diabetes therapy SC451 this year.
March 16, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
2D illustration showing scientists' hands editing a DNA strand
Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Solid Adds to Differentiated Profile With New Data for Duchenne Gene Therapy
Solid Biosciences’ SGT-003 is the only late‑stage program to show early cardiac benefit across biomarkers and function, according to William Blair.
March 13, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Rare diseases
Rare Disease Sales To Soar to $400B+ By 2032 as Small Molecules Resurgent: Evaluate
Small-molecule drugs account for nearly half of the most valuable investigational therapies for orphan diseases, according to analytics firm Evaluate.
March 13, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Weight loss
Lilly Flags ‘Concerning’ Impurities in Compounded Tirzepatide
Combining tirzepatide with vitamin B12, a common additive in compounded versions of the drug, yields an impurity that could alter the drug’s toxicity profile and pose safety risks to patients, the company said in an open letter.
March 12, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Rare diseases
BridgeBio Builds Case for Early 2027 Launch of Dystrophy Drug
Data from BridgeBio Pharma’s Phase 3 FORTIFY study show that BBP-418 significantly increases levels of a key disease biomarker that helps stabilize muscles in patients with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.
March 12, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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Clinical research
MDA 2026: Biogen, Sarepta, Edgewise Address Muscle Disorders
Data presented at the 2026 Muscular Dystrophy Association meeting could have readthroughs to companies developing therapies for spinal muscular atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Becker muscular dystrophy.
March 12, 2026
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3 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Businessman carrying big bag of money moving forward
C-suite
J&J, AbbVie CEOs See Pay Spike to More Than $30M
The chief executives of AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson are now among the highest-paid pharma leaders after pay bumps pushed their 2025 compensations past $30 million.
March 12, 2026
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1 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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