Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events and approvals announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.

Emerging Company Profile: The eight-year-old vaccine firm is planning clinical trials in the Philippines and Brazil to see how its synthetic viral peptide vaccine technology stands up against coronaviruses and dengue fever.

Private Company Edition: First quarter data again confirm fewer but larger VC rounds in Q1. Big Q2 rounds include a $132.5m series C round for Endeavor Biomedicines, a $103m series A round for Reunion Neuroscience and Enlaza’s $100m series A.

Recent moves in the industry also include C-suite shuffles at Faron Pharmaceuticals and new chief financial officers at Orion, BioVaxys Technology and Cullinan Therapeutics.

The attraction of listing in the US for innovative companies is clear but the heads of the Swiss Biotech Association tell Scrip that start-ups should remember the advantages of playing at home and not waste too much energy and time on worrying about being on the NASDAQ.

In this video interview, Sharon Chan, vice-president, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS Asia Pacific, shares her views on what South Korea’s strengths are as a biotech and medtech R&D hub, JLABS's plans in the country and what role it wants for its local activities domestically and beyond.

Ono’s just-announced purchase of Deciphera has put the tenosynovial giant cell tumor space under the spotlight and SynOx is making strides to stay at the head of the pack helped by significant financing.

UK-based Ochre Bio has signed its first major deal with Boehringer Ingelheim. Scrip talked to its co-founder and CEO, Jack O’Meara, about its human tissue-based drug discovery platform, its resulting RNA platform for liver disease and how the fledgling drug company's early work mirrored that seen in diagnostics.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty toppled after recording the highest ever annual sales for a pharmaceutical in 2022, while Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic climbed rapidly. But Merck & Co’s immuno-oncology blockbuster Keytruda was secure in the number one spot in 2023 as COVID-19 receded.

The highs of the COVID-19 era, and the lows that supplanted it, are beginning to fade.

A year is a long time in biopharma. Pharmaprojects’ annual pipeline review finds changes in the therapeutic spread of drug candidates and a reordering of the top R&D companies, as Chinese firms made their presence felt all the more over the past 12 months.

A look at the depth of clinical responses seen with various MASH therapies suggests that Madrigal could eventually face serious competition.

Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events and approvals announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.

Longtime pharmaceutical industry analyst Andrew Baum will join Pfizer’s executive leadership team.

With just 14% of active pharmaceutical ingredients estimated to be made in the US and China’s overall dominance in the space, a new study points to the pressing need for the US to address bottlenecks in the supply chain and proposes a string of approaches to partner with India in its de-risking efforts.

BridgeBio will narrow its focus to rare diseases and the November action date for acoramidis, while subsidiary TheRas will become BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, focused on KRAS-targeted drugs.

Emerging Company Profile: The eight-year-old vaccine firm is planning clinical trials in the Philippines and Brazil to see how its synthetic viral peptide vaccine technology stands up against coronaviruses and dengue fever.

Private Company Edition: First quarter data again confirm fewer but larger VC rounds in Q1. Big Q2 rounds include a $132.5m series C round for Endeavor Biomedicines, a $103m series A round for Reunion Neuroscience and Enlaza’s $100m series A.

BioNTech and the UK government's alliance to bring personalized cancer immunotherapy to patients is making progress, but the National Health Service has to show it can deliver on clinical trials recruitment.

The attraction of listing in the US for innovative companies is clear but the heads of the Swiss Biotech Association tell Scrip that start-ups should remember the advantages of playing at home and not waste too much energy and time on worrying about being on the NASDAQ.

Executives said during Amgen’s Q1 call that the company is “encouraged” by interim Phase II data for MariTide (AMG 133) in obesity, so it is designing Phase III trials and building manufacturing capacity. 

The acquisition of Mariana will complement Novartis’s lutetium-based radioligand therapies with candidates using actinium. Lilly, Bristol and AstraZeneca all have made recent high-priced buys in the space.

The US Food and Drug Administration has requested additional efficacy information on the supplemental filing in the potentially large new indication.

Novo raises its top- and bottom-line guidance as it prioritizes volume over price.