Despite Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy’s oft-repeated vow to rid the FDA of industry influence, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced George Tidmarsh, an industry veteran, will be the next director of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).
SML Biopharm Co. Ltd. is harnessing mRNA technology to develop novel immunotherapy-based cancer vaccines, including two candidates for cervical and head and neck cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.
After two decades of research elucidating the basic science, Tafalgie Therapeutics SA has delivered the first clinical data for its non-opioid analgesic.
Big pharma is increasingly shopping in China to fill its pipelines as it faces looming patent cliffs on major blockbusters coupled with growing pricing pressures on drugs. China’s out-licensing deals grew to represent 32% of global deals in the first half of 2025, according to a Jefferies report on China dealmaking.
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. is declining a U.S. FDA request to voluntarily halt shipping its gene therapy, Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvovec), in the U.S. On July 18, Sarepta said had it received “an informal request” from the FDA to stop the shipments following a third patient’s death, tied to the gene therapy SRP-9004, which uses the same vector as Elevidys.
The fate of IL-33-targeting astegolimab will be determined by talks with regulators, after Roche AG’s Genentech unit rolled out mixed results from a pair of studies testing the compound vs. placebo on top of standard-of-care (SOC) maintenance therapy in subjects with moderate to very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The U.S. FDA approved 22 drugs in June, tying with March for the highest number of approvals and a jump from 15 approvals in May. The FDA approved 107 drugs in the first half (H1) of 2025, making it the third-highest total for this period in BioWorld’s records, trailing 118 approvals in 2024 and 108 in 2020.