BioCentury This Week

Biotechs have been pricing follow-ons at a steady pace, with some companies parlaying data into upsized deals, and others even beginning to debut on NASDAQ — but will geopolitical tensions and war in the Middle East scuttle the forward momentum? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts take the temperature of the markets for biotech."
They also discuss last week’s late-stage epilepsy data from Xenon Pharmaceuticals, which revived the biotech’s stock and the Kv7 target.
And, in a Rare Disease Spotlight, BioCentury’s analysts discuss how Friedreich ataxia is moving into a mechanistic second act, with biotechs pivoting from stabilizing the mitochondrial damage caused by frataxin loss to developing therapies designed to fix the gene itself.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658810

#BiotechMarkets #EpilepsyResearch #Kv7 #RareDisease #GeneTherapy

00:00 - Introduction
03:23 - Market Sentiment
09:58 - Xenon Phase III Win
18:03 - Friedreich Ataxia Pipeline

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Biotechs in South Korea and other regions of Asia outside of China need to lean into innovation to distinguish themselves from their Chinese counterparts. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts are joined by industry guests Ya-Ting Lei and Luther (Ruizhe) Zhao to discuss why the best path for biotechs in Korea and Japan is to lean into target, biology and modality risk, as well as other takeaways from the fifth BioCentury-BayHelix Biopharma Summit, which ran March 9-12 in Seoul and Daejeon, South Korea.
Lei is director of BD Asia at Merck KGaA, and Zhao is VP, China clinical analytics at Caidya.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658776

#AsiaBiotech #SouthKoreaBiotech #BiopharmaSummit #BiotechInnovation #DrugDevelopmentStrategy

00:00 - Introduction
02:32 - Key Takeaways
05:46 - Faster Trials, Better Data
08:19 - Global Diligence, Local Success
15:13 - Cross Border Synergies
17:34 - Korean Biotech

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The second ousting of Vinay Prasad from FDA in the past eight months won’t lead to major changes at the agency, other than selecting a successor tasked with keeping FDA out of the news ahead of the coming midterm elections. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, Washington editor Steve Usdin lays out why the former CBER director was pushed out at FDA and what’s next for the agency following his departure.
BioCentury’s editors also discuss the next wave of therapies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, including whether new candidates might go beyond slowing disease to halt or even reverse progression, the biological complexity that makes fibrosis so challenging, and what the 20-plus Phase II programs could teach the field about fibrosis biology.
Also up for discussion were recent clinical wins — as well as more complicated readouts — from psychedelic therapies; plus the latest data updates from obesity treatments, with a focus on amylin agonists.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658698

#FDA #IdiopathicPulmonaryFibrosis #PsychedelicTherapies #ObesityDrugs #AmylinAgonists

00:00 - Introduction
01:56 - Prasad's Departure
15:27 - Fibrosis Therapies
23:35 - Psychedelics Clinical Catalysts
28:24 - Obesity Updates

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Can a strong U.S. biopharma industry be reconciled with the successful emergence of China? And can China be a catalyst of positive change across the global industry, even if this implies some level of rebalancing away from the U.S.? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss a Guest Commentary by McKinsey Senior Partner Emeritus Franck Le Deu, who argues that a multipolar biopharma world in which the U.S. continues to thrive even as China becomes meaningfully stronger can emerge.
The analysts also discuss BioCentury’s latest Rare Disease Spotlight, which focuses on a wave of therapies aiming to activate retinal function in Stargardt disease patients.
Turning to FDA, BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin discusses recent public statements by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, questions about Vinay Prasad’s future, and the plausible mechanism pathway.
View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658606
 #GlobalBiopharma #ChinaBiotech #RareDisease #StargardtDisease #FDAPolicy 
00:00 - Introduction
02:47 - Multipolar Biopharma World
13:39 - Rare Disease Spotlight
25:15 - Makary Remarks
31:14 - Plausible Mechanism Framework
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Gilead is acquiring Arcellx for $7.8 billion up front three years after forging a partnership with the biotech around a cell therapy for multiple myeloma. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts assess what the deal does for the Foster City, Calif.-based biotech’s pipeline.
The analysts also discuss the case for using ctDNA as a surrogate endpoint for early cancer trials.
Turning to Washington, Steve Usdin offers his takeaways from last week’s PhRMA Forum, which focused on China and the Trump administration’s most favored nation (MFN) drug pricing policy, and on the lessons that can be drawn from FDA’s about-face on the recent vaccine application from Moderna.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658516

#BiotechMA #MultipleMyeloma #ctDNA #DrugPricingPolicy #FDA

00:00 - Introduction
02:34 - Gilead's Arcellx Buy
11:14 - ctDNA Surrogate Endpoints
21:59 - PhRMA Forum Takeaways
29:19 - FDA Moderna U-turn

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].
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