Even though pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reforms were dropped from the continuing resolution that was signed into law Dec. 21 to keep the U.S. government fully functional through March 14, the incoming administration and Congress likely will continue to try to rein in the PBMs, which serve as middlemen in the nation’s drug supply chain.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Applied, Astrazeneca, Bristol Myers, Eli Lilly, Glaukos, Keymed, Novo Nordisk, Nuvation, Pfizer, Rhythm, Tonix, Vertex.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Corxel, Ikena, Inmagene, Jemincare, Neurosense, Rapt, Vicentage.
In the 1970s, scientists from several countries proposed to reconstruct, one by one, all the neurons in the brain as they appear under an electron microscope. They started with a small worm. Caenorhabditis elegans has only 302 neurons. It took 16 years. How much time would be required to repeat this arduous task for the 100 billion neurons in the human brain?
First, the good news about pandemics – and in 2024, there was big “good news.” Science Magazine named lenacapavir (Gilead Sciences Inc.) as the Breakthrough of the Year. In two separate trials, lenacapavir prevented HIV transmission with 100% efficacy in cisgender African women and 99.9% efficacy in men and gender-diverse persons when administered twice a year.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. won €50 million (₩75.5 billion, US$52.03 million) up front from Sanofi SA to expand an earlier agreement to develop and commercialize novel pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). The first deal resulted in GBP-410 (SP-0202), its pediatric 21-valent PCV candidate that moved into phase III study last week.
The U.S. FDA approved 10 drugs in November, down from 15 in October, 24 in September and 22 in August. Four new molecular entities were approved by the agency in the month, bringing the year-to-date total to 42.