SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
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.

Online Medicine or internet pharmacy services as a pharmacist or web doctor and medical health service or digital healthcare for purchase and delivery of medications as Telemedicine and Teleconsultations.
GLP-1
Lilly’s Foundayo reaches 1,390 patients in first week, trailing Novo’s oral Wegovy launch
While Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill reached more than 3,000 patients in its first week on the market, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said a direct comparison of the two figures could be misleading given the shorter data collection time for Foundayo.
April 17, 2026
 · 
1 min read
 · 
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
UPDATE: Kailera breaks biotech IPO record with $625M debut
Obesity-focused Kailera Therapeutics debuted on the Nasdaq Friday after raising a record $625 million, beating Moderna’s $600 million from 2018.
April 17, 2026
 · 
4 min read
 · 
Tristan Manalac
Government
RFK Jr. defends Makary, claims pharma ‘owns’ Congress and media
The pharma industry “own Congress, they own the media,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told lawmakers by way of explaining the bad press against FDA Commissioner Marty Makary following the second rejection of Replimune’s advanced melanoma drug.
April 17, 2026
 · 
2 min read
 · 
Tristan Manalac
Vector Illustration Of Athletes Running On Race Track
Obesity
Novo may have muscle advantage over Lilly in weight-loss race: preprint
More patients on Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide lost over 5% of their lean mass versus those on Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, according to a study that has yet to be peer reviewed.
April 17, 2026
 · 
2 min read
 · 
Tristan Manalac
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
1 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
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
 · 
2 min read
 · 
Tristan Manalac
Load More