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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.

Stacks of coins and a rocket flying above them as a metaphor for income growth.
Deals
Obesity’s explosive growth continues as Q1 deals exceed total 2025 value
Commitments in obesity- and diabetes-focused deals reached $22 billion in the first quarter of 2026—already eclipsing last year’s total of $20.3 billion, according to a new J.P. Morgan report.
April 16, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Illustration showing scales with bags of money tipped to side with most money
Funding
Revolution doubles stock offering target to $2B following pancreatic cancer win
After Revolution Medicines’ drug candidate doubled survival in a Phase 3 pancreatic cancer study, the biotech is hoping to attract more investor money, with new plans for a $2 billion stock and debt offering.
April 16, 2026
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1 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan/Courtesy of Novartis
Artificial intelligence
Novartis CEO joins Anthropic board, embedding AI in the heart of biopharma
In recent months, Anthropic has been building more and more ties with the biopharma industry, including partnerships with Big Pharma companies such as Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and AbbVie.
April 16, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Working bees on honeycomb
Autoimmune disease
BMS makes a Beeline, bringing 5 assets to biotech’s $300M precision immunology debut
Leading Beeline Medicines’ pipeline is afimetoran, which is in Phase 2 development for systemic lupus erythematosus with data expected later this year.
April 15, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Pruning tree branches. Gloved hands hold a branch and cutting shears, the gardener takes care of the park. Vector illustration.
Business
Takeda continues to prune partnerships, cuts ties with mRNA-targeting Veritas In Silico
After divorcing Denali Therapeutics earlier this month, Takeda is now splitting up with Veritas In Silico, pulling back from a partnership that advanced novel small-molecule drugs targeting mRNA.
April 15, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
speed bumps marked in yellow on a residential road. a road in the fog among very old historic willows. a foggy road on a spring morning.
Obesity
Lilly’s new obesity pill linked to ‘serious’ safety signals, FDA requests more data
The FDA is asking Eli Lilly to submit cardiovascular and liver safety data from an ongoing Phase 3 trial of Foundayo by July.
April 15, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Success to win in business competition, overcome obstacles or motivation to solve problem and lead company achievement concept, confident businessman leader jump high over 3 hurdles to be winner.
Approvals
Travere’s Filspari overcomes Phase 3 fail to become first drug for rare kidney disease
The FDA has greenlit Travere Therapeutics’ Filspari as the only available treatment for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis despite the drug’s loss to Sanofi’s Avapro in a Phase 3 study.
April 14, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Concept of money prize. Vector illustration. Halftone hand holds bouquet of money flowers. Gift prize, donation, earnings, bonus or cashback concept. Retro poster or banner. Creative trend collage.
IPO
Kailera eyes record $533M+ IPO to play in competitive obesity space with Chinese drugs
Kailera Therapeutics is advancing a pipeline of obesity drugs, led by the GLP-1/GIP dual agonist ribupatide, which the biotech is developing both as an injectable and as a pill.
April 14, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Photo collage hands body fragments palms eyesight vision espionage psychedelic concept eyes cutouts privacy violence drawing doodles.
Regulatory
FDA asks 2,200 drug developers to make trial results public, ramping up transparency push
Some 30% of clinical trials that are mandated to report their findings have not posted results to clinicaltrials.gov, the federal government’s public repository for studies, according to internal data from the FDA.
April 14, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Stand out from the crowd and different creative idea concepts , Longest light ladder glowing and aiming high to goal target among other short ladders on green background with shadows . 3D rendering.
Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)
BioNTech, DualityBio tout ‘clinically meaningful’ efficacy for ADC in mid-stage endometrial cancer trial
Trastuzumab pamirtecan, being developed under a 2023 partnership between BioNTech and DualityBio, elicited a 44.1% overall response rate in a Phase 2 trial.
April 13, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Indoor boxing ring corner with flooding spotlight .
Radiopharmaceuticals
Regeneron enters radiopharma ring with up to $4.3B Telix alliance
Telix is Regeneron’s entry ticket into the radiopharma game, helping to better round out the company’s cancer portfolio, according to Truist Securities.
April 13, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Illustration showing businessman trying to create his own road
Complete response letters
Second rejection for tumor destroyer puts Replimune on a ‘challenging path’
Replimune’s CEO Sushil Patel has already warned that the biotech will need to cut staff and substantially scale back its U.S. manufacturing operations.
April 13, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
IPO Initial Public Offering finance business concept. 3D render vector illustration of Trading on IPO Initial Public Offering, Business Startup and Stock Market Concept. Public offering share launch
IPO tracker
Seaport, Hemab set sail for Nasdaq
Analysts are cautiously optimistic about an IPO rebound for biopharma. BioSpace is keeping track of companies that seek to trade on the public markets this year.
April 13, 2026
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9 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Reducing the dose of medicine. Splitting the pills. Health care and medication. White medical pill broken into three pieces on blue background.
Regulatory
GSK again pulls application for leucovorin, touted by FDA as potential autism treatment
GSK discontinued Wellcovorin in 1999, but the FDA in September last year asked the pharma to refile an application, pointing to its potential to treat cerebral folate deficiency with “autistic features.”
April 10, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
Finding Talent. Big Hands with Magnifying Glass Recruiting People. vector
Regulatory
FDA probes abortion pill anew after court keeps mail access alive
A Louisiana court on April 7 asked the FDA to complete its internal review of mifepristone’s safety and gave the agency six months to provide the court with an update on the investigation.
April 10, 2026
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2 min read
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Tristan Manalac
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