BioWorld, Nov. 6, 2025

Lilly, Novo MFN deals expected to ‘democratize’ obesity drugs

Hailing it as a win-win and a historic step forward in fighting chronic disease, the Trump administration announced pricing agreements Nov. 6 with Eli Lilly and Co. and Novo Nordisk A/S that will expand the availability of the companies’ weight loss drugs by cutting prices and, for the first time, providing coverage for the drugs in obesity through Medicare and Medicaid. Read More

Lilly's amylin drug heads to phase III on strong weight loss data

Eli Lilly and Co.’s amylin receptor agonist, eloralintide, showed impressive weight loss and improved tolerability in phase II results reported at ObesityWeek 2025, setting the stage for a phase III trial to start next month. The once-weekly drug demonstrated superior mean weight reductions from 9.5% to 20.1% vs. only 0.4% for placebo over 48 weeks, with all treatment arms meeting the primary endpoint, mean percent change in body weight from the average baseline of 240.5 lbs. (109.1 kg). Read More

3D illustration showing presence of tumor inside prostate gland

Advancell sets new radiopharma standard in prostate cancer

Aussie radiopharma company Advancell Co. Ltd. unveiled promising early clinical data that could redefine how advanced prostate cancer is treated by targeted alpha therapies in the radiopharmaceutical space. Read More

IPO buzz renewed? Hive-minded Evommune prices for $150M

With strong phase II data in hand from its trial testing EVO-756 in chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU) – hives triggered by a specific cause – Evommune Inc. priced its IPO of about 9.3 million shares at $16 each, granting underwriters a 30-day option to buy as many as about 1.4 million more. Proceeds are expected to total $150 million, and shares of the firm (NYSE:EVMN) came out of the gate strong, closing Nov. 6 at $20.23, up 26%. Read More

Azalea exits stealth to develop its in vivo gene engineering technology

San Francisco Bay Area researchers from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and Stanford University have combined their technologies to create Azalea Therapeutics Inc., a company focused on editing cells in vivo. Read More

With transdiagnostic approach, smaller target groups aren’t inevitably smaller markets

Despite the formidable challenges for developing precision psychiatry, the approach is notching its first successes in the preclinical and even some clinical settings. Many individual studies as well as large projects like the Psychiatric Ratings using Intermediate Markers studies and the Psychiatric Biomarkers Network have been looking at multiple biomarker types, and have begun to identify predictors of specific symptoms, or disease progression. Read More

Bavarian Nordic shareholders say no to private equity takeover

Bavarian Nordic A/S will continue operating as an independent public company after an offer to be acquired by two private equity firms failed to win sufficient shareholder approval. Read More

Oral GLP-1 among FDA’s second batch of CNPV awardees

Industry watchers were surprised when Eli Lilly and Co.’s oral GLP-1 candidate, orforglipron, did not appear among the first nine recipients of the U.S. FDA’s commissioner’s national priority voucher (CNPV) program aimed at shortening regulatory review times, boosting domestic manufacturing and improving affordability. But orforglipron, which recently nailed endpoints in a second phase III trial and has been hailed a potentially best-in-class compound, was among the second batch of six drugs added to the CNPV list. Read More