Mehmet Oz, the Trump administration’s pick to lead the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), appeared for a second time in the Senate for the CMS administrator’s job.
Shares of Unity Biotechnology Inc. (NASDAQ:UBX) sank 28.8% to close at $1.30 March 24 as a top-line readout of its phase IIb Aspire study testing UBX-1325 head-to-head against aflibercept in diabetic macular edema (DME) fell short of statistical noninferiority on the primary analysis endpoint. But that’s not the full story, according to company executives, who have plans for moving the senolytic Bcl-xL inhibitor into late-stage studies.
The U.S. FDA rejected, for the second time, Elevar Therapeutics Inc.’s NDA of a novel combination therapy for advanced liver cancer, which comprised Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s PD-1 inhibitor camrelizumab and HLB Co. Ltd.’s small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, rivoceranib.
Elevation Oncology Inc. has nixed its lead pipeline product, a claudin 18.2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) called EO-3021, on disappointing phase I data, sending shares tumbling by 42% and placing its preclinical HER3 ADC to the forefront of development.
Sanofi SA is getting deeper into oncology and immunology therapy development through buying Dren Bio Inc.’s myeloid cell engager for deep B-cell depletion, DR-0201. The deal could reach as high as $1.9 billion for privately held Dren. Sanofi is paying a hefty $600 million up front, and milestone payments to come could add up to $1.3 billion.
The unrelenting pressure on medical practice in the U.S. has sparked some innovations, but a legislative innovation is now in the works that would fundamentally shift how at least some drugs are prescribed. The Healthy Technology Act of 2025 (H.R. 238) would allow AI and machine learning algorithms to write prescriptions for pharmaceuticals, although the lack of co-sponsors for H.R. 238 suggests that this bill is not ready for prime time just yet.
The politicization of the U.S. FTC continued March 18 with President Donald Trump firing the two remaining Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. The action leaves what’s supposed to be a five-member bipartisan panel with just two members, both of whom are Republicans. The commission already was down one member, as former Chair Lina Khan’s term expired last year and Trump’s appointee, Mark Meador, is awaiting Senate confirmation with a vote expected yet this month.
Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc. is getting $70 million up front and could earn up to $710 million in milestone payments in a deal with Servier for phase I-stage BDTX-4933, a small-molecule candidate targeting both RAS mutations and RAF alternations for treating solid tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer.
The U.S. foreign aid cuts and freezes that are taking place under President Donald Trump are putting at risk the global public health gains that have been made against diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis over the past two decades, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a March 17 media briefing, as he called on other countries to step up and fill the gap.
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