Hutchmed Ltd. plans to file a second NDA in China for sovleplenib, a novel spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor, based on positive phase II/III findings in warm antibody autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s oral tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor, zasocitinib (TAK-279), met the co-primary endpoints and all ranked secondary endpoints in two pivotal phase III studies in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.
News of Eli Lilly and Co. purchasing Ventyx Biosciences Inc. for $14 per share arrived after market close Jan. 7, following unconfirmed rumors of the buyout that drove shares up by more than 52% at one point.
Securing a second major partnership with Sanofi SA – this time worth a potential $2.56 billion – Earendil Labs will provide its AI-driven discovery platform to find new therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Zenas Biopharma Inc.’s positive data from the phase III Indigo trial with obexelimab in immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) set investigators to speculating about the bifunctional antibody’s odds in the marketplace, as the Waltham, Mass.-based firm plans a BLA submission the U.S. FDA in the second quarter of this year.
In October, the Nobel Committee awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Shimon Sakaguchi, Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell for their discoveries in the field of autoimmunity. As has become typical for the scientific Nobel Prizes, the award-winning research is by now several decades old. But the discoveries were the basis for ongoing research into how to prevent autoimmunity that notched significant wins in 2025, in both basic research and in the clinic.
The U.S. FDA’s green lighting of Omeros Corp.’s Yartemlea (narsoplimab) makes it the first approved treatment for hematopoietic stem cell transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA), a life-threatening complication of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation. The BLA for narsoplimab, a fully human monoclonal antibody that inhibits the enzyme mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2, had a Dec. 26 PDUFA date.
Speed and innovation from Asia Pacific’s (APAC) biotechnology sector had big pharma scouring the region for the next oncology heir to Keytruda (pembrolizumab), Merck & Co. Inc.’s reigning blockbuster cancer drug.
Driven by a deeply antiscientific political agenda, the current U.S. government is not just sabotaging some of the most groundbreaking technology that has been developed in the past decades. It is also destroying the country’s past successes, such as measles elimination and the reduction of hepatitis B infections in infants to near zero.