In January 2025, BioWorld tracked 171 phase I-III clinical trial updates, down from 212 in December. The month delivered 12 successful phase III outcomes, six of those in cancer, while two trials ended in failure.

Astrazeneca plc’s good news with its oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) and estrogen receptor antagonist, camizestrant, when used as part of a combo in breast cancer raised optimism for the approach, which has caught on in various biopharma quarters.

The BioWorld Biopharmaceutical Index (BBI) ended 2024 down 2.24%, despite hitting a peak of 25.19% in late August. While it remained in positive territory through November, up 3.58%, the steady decline through the later months of the year pushed the index into the red by December’s close.

The map of cystic fibrosis (CF) research is being redrawn in the U.K. as improvements in treatment, and in particular the introduction of CF modulator drugs, mean people with the rare inherited disease are living much longer.

A panel at Biocom California’s 15th Annual Global Life Science Partnering & Investor Conference covered the emerging use of artificial intelligence (AI) to discover and develop drugs. “We’re in a very different place than we were five years ago, or even three years ago, even two years ago, from our ability to harness AI to make advances,” Marc Tessier-Lavigne, CEO of South San Francisco-based Xaira Therapeutics Inc., told the audience, adding that the development is actually accelerating.

HBM Alpha Therapeutics Inc. signed a potential $395 million licensing deal Feb. 26 with an unnamed “business partner” for its endocrine asset, HAT-001, adding another contender to the congenital adrenal hyperplasia space.

As Wall Street looks ahead to phase III data due soon with Mineralys Therapeutics Inc.’s lorundrostat for uncontrolled or resistant hypertension, analysts are also weighing the odds of the firm in phase II with the same compound for obstructive sleep apnea.