Raising money to advance promising science is a constant struggle, bringing biopharma executive leadership together to learn about investment strategies in the opening session at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s CEO and Investor Conference in New York. “We’re bottoms-up investors. If we like the technology, we like the product, we think it’s going to work, we want to find a way to invest,” said Chris Garabedian, chairman and CEO of Xontogeny.
From Feb. 10, the U.S. NIH is to cut the amount of its grants that go to indirect costs, in a move it says will save $4 billion per annum, but which scientists say will hit breakthrough biomedical research. The NIH announced the cut on Friday, Feb. 7, saying there would be a flat rate of 15% for indirect costs, such as running laboratories, buying and maintaining equipment, data processing and storage, across all of its grants. That compares to an average rate historically of between 27% and 28%, the NIH said.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Bio-Thera.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Cyclo, Denali, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Novo Nordisk, Replicate, Roche.
In the early days of the second Trump administration, what will happen to various government science agencies is not yet clear. Given the communications blackout imposed on agencies including the NIH and the CDC, most of what is known comes from anonymous sources and secondhand reports. Executive orders affecting the agencies are also still in the process of being interpreted, as well as subject to multiple legal challenges.