Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Adicet, Affimed, Alar, Aligos, Beigene, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Gilead, Impact, VBI, Vertex, Viiv, Viriom.
In a year impeded by the monumental challenges of a worldwide pandemic yet powered by near-record drug development and approvals, the Drugs to Watch 2021 report has narrowed a wide and tough field to four treatments that could achieve blockbuster status in the next five years. The drugs included in the report, an annual view of powerhouse drug development that Clarivate plc began issuing in 2013, are cited as possibly being well on their way to annual sales of more than $1 billion each.
Mouse traps. Bird excrement. Insects. Rusted equipment and peeling paint. Employees not gowning properly for a clean room or washing their hands after using the bathroom. Those are just some of the things the FDA is missing as it relies on document reviews, sampling at the border and other alternatives to onsite drug inspections during the pandemic.
Five years after its initial investment in Maverick Therapeutics Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is exercising its option to buy the privately held company for a pre-negotiated up-front payment plus development and regulatory milestones of up to $525 million.
LONDON – Neophore Ltd. announced the close of a $21 million series B that will enable it to further advance a portfolio of small-molecule DNA mismatch repair (MMR) inhibitors over the next 2.5 years.
Graybug Vision Inc. reported results from the phase IIb Altissimo study testing GB-102 as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that didn't live up to expectations set by the phase I/IIa Adagio study.
In 2020, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was the first medical conference to go virtual, with two days advance warning, when news of infections resulting from a Biogen Inc. conference with about 150 attendees made it abundantly clear that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating, well, probably everywhere.