Anthem shrugs off analyst concerns about MA, says enrollment period 'consistent' with expectations Incyte pulls FDA filing for cancer drug approval over confirmatory study, following Gilead out of the exit Abbott weathers 2021’s COVID-testing roller coaster ride with $7.7B in annual diagnostic sales Immunocore wins FDA nod for first uveal melanoma treatment, also first T-cell receptor therapeutic Gilead's $4.9B oncology bet hit with partial clinical hold, forcing pause of pivotal trials and raising doubts about CD47 Change Healthcare mulling sale of its ClaimsXten arm to secure federal OK for UnitedHealth merger Court ruling on bluebird bio’s gene therapy marketing campaign 'sparks' dismay at Roche's Spark Robotic surgery developer Distalmotion nets $90M to expand to US shores Golden parachute payouts worth $20M for Cerner's Feinberg, former CEO with proposed sale to Oracle Akili inks $1B SPAC deal to take prescription video game tech public Blockbuster cancer med Keytruda may help flush out dormant HIV, suggesting a new way to treat long-running epidemic Pfizer goes subtle on vaccine but big on human spirit in latest ad spot CytoDyn board ousts CEO after a wild year, leaving an albatross of a C-suite job to fill Featured Story | By Paige Minemyer Anthem reported $1.1 billion in profit for the fourth quarter, doubling its haul of $551 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. read more |
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Top Stories By Nick Paul Taylor The follicular lymphoma market is thinning out fast. Days after Gilead pulled an accelerated approval for Zydelig in the indication, Incyte has withdrawn a submission for approval of its rival PI3K inhibitor in response to talks with the FDA about confirmatory studies. read more By Andrea Park 2021 was full of ups and downs, and coronavirus test makers like Abbott bore the brunt of each and every one of them. read more By Kevin Dunleavy Immunocore's Kimmtrak has been approved by the FDA for uveal melanoma a month ahead of its target date. It is the first therapy for unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma, and the first drug of its class, as a T-cell receptor therapy, to be approved. It will be priced at $18,760 per vial for a weekly dose, or $400,000 for the average patient duration. read more By Nick Paul Taylor Gilead’s $4.9 billion oncology bet has hit a late-phase setback. Spooked by an “apparent imbalance” in adverse reactions between study arms, the FDA has imposed a partial clinical hold on a handful of trials of magrolimab—raising questions about the program and the billions biopharma has bet on CD47. read more By Paige Minemyer Change Healthcare is mulling the sale of its payment integrity business, ClaimsXten, in hopes it will pave the way for federal approval for its merger with UnitedHealth Group, Bloomberg reports. read more By Angus Liu In a blow to Roche, gene therapy developer bluebird bio can continue to use “spark” in its marketing campaign for sickle cell disease—at least for a while. A federal judge in Delaware has denied a request by Roche’s Spark Therapeutics for a preliminary injunction against a bluebird disease awareness campaign dubbed “Be the Spark.” read more By Conor Hale The funding round follows a European approval at the end of 2020 and the Dexter system's first gynecologic and general surgery procedures last year. read more By Heather Landi Four top executives, including former Cerner CEO Brent Shafer, have golden parachutes ranging from $10 million to almost $22 million if they are forced out in the Oracle acquisition, according to a filing with the SEC. The filing also outlines how the deal came together and offers details about another takeover offer that occurred months before. read more By Andrea Park Less than two years after scoring its first FDA clearance, Akili Interactive is betting big on its digital therapeutic technology. read more By Kyle LaHucik In the 41-year HIV epidemic, no treatments have been approved to completely clear the virus largely because of its ability to live on in hidden form in the genomes of T cells. Now, researchers say an approved cancer drug might help flush the dormant HIV from immune cells, potentially paving the way for new treatment options. read more By Sharon Klahr Coey In times of trouble, (hello, global pandemic year two), it’s a common and popular practice to wax poetic about the strength of the human spirit … and that’s just what Pfizer does in the latest of its brand-building “don’t talk too much about the vaccine” spots. read more By Annalee Armstrong CytoDyn CEO Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., is out, and CFO Antonio Migliarese is in, at least for the interim, in the latest twist in one of the wildest tales in biotech. The embattled company, which has been trying for the past year to prove its therapy leronlimab can work in diseases from cancer to COVID-19 to HIV, unveiled the leadership change Tuesday morning. read more |
