John Crowley doesn’t worry about where his kids’ toys are made, but he told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that he does care where their medicines are made. His concerns, as a father and as president/CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, are becoming more urgent, he testified at an Oct. 29 HELP hearing on the future of biotech in the U.S.

The U.S. FDA has granted orphan drug designation to Dewpoint Therapeutics Inc.’s DPTX-3186, its first-in-class condensate modulator for the treatment of gastric cancer. The designation follows the recent opening of Dewpoint’s IND application for DPTX-3186 earlier in October, and is the first orphan designation ever granted to a condensate-modulating therapeutic.

The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization on Oct. 30 welcomed the bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and South Korea announced during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Ten years after the first biosimilar launched on the U.S. market, the FDA is taking steps to make biosimilar development and pharmacy substitution more like that of generics, reducing the cost of the drugs in the process. “We want to see more biosimilars. We want to see more competition,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said at an Oct. 29 media briefing in which he announced new guidance to streamline biosimilar development, cut through the red tape and shorten the timeline.

Exousia Pro Inc.’s subsidiary, Exousia AI, has received orphan drug designation from the FDA for its exosome-based treatment for malignant glioma.

Resolute Science Inc.’s RS-5 has been awarded orphan drug designation by the FDA for the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. agreed to codevelop and commercialize up to three of Innovent Biologics Co. Ltd.’s immuno-oncology (I-O) and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates with the signing of a $11.4 billion deal, including $1.2 billion paid up front.

Dewpoint Therapeutics Inc. has announced an IND in the U.S. for DPTX-3186, a first-in-class oral condensate modulator designed to selectively disrupt oncogenic Wnt/β-catenin signaling in tumors. Dosing is set to begin before year-end in a phase I/II trial conducted in partnership with cancer centers and opinion leaders in gastric and other Wnt-driven cancers.

San Diego-based Dexcom Inc., is the target of a class action lawsuit in U.S. district court over the company’s G7 continuous glucose monitors, an action which follows a U.S. FDA warning letter by a mere seven months and a recall announced in July, suggesting that litigation often follows other sources of bad news for firms in the med-tech business.