Business Strategy

TiumBio’s CEO shares his experiences as the original developer of hemophilia therapy Afstyla, the reason the rare disease-specialized company is exploring opportunities in Australia, as well as its R&D plans.

Zydus is pivoting to a multivariant version of its plasmid DNA vaccine against COVID-19, ZyCoV-D, after the original didn’t receive an encouraging response. It also looks to launch a Revlimid generic in the second wave while an opportunity might soon emerge from Takeda’s Pentasa.

The “Accord for a Healthier World” pledges to provide patent-protected medicines on a not-for-profit basis in 45 lower-income nations. Pfizer, which profited most from the COVID-19 pandemic, sees the pandemic experience as a way to advance health equity.

CEO Jan Schmidt-Brand tells Scrip that with another reliable long-term investor on the team alongside major shareholder Dievini, Heidelberg is well positioned to advance its amanitin-targeted antibody-drug conjugate candidates.

Detailed data presented at Digestive Disease Week show competitive efficacy in ulcerative colitis and a potential best-in-class safety profile for the S1P receptor modulator Pfizer acquired earlier this year. 

The Roivant-owned company's Vtama topical cream was approved by the US FDA with a broad label permitting use for mild, moderate or severe psoriasis.

The company aims to file for desmoid tumors in the second half of 2022, but it has more than half a dozen combination programs with BCMA-targeting therapies in multiple myeloma.

With the sale of its migraine portfolio to Pfizer pending, Biohaven said troriluzole – a lead asset in the pipeline soon to be spun out in a new company – failed in a Phase III trial. 

Concert’s deuterated ruxolitinib analog is potentially third in line to market for alopecia areata, behind Lilly’s Olumiant and a Pfizer JAK3 inhibitor, but may be demonstrating a best-in-class profile.

Some commercial-stage biotechnology companies blame the pandemic for their declining sales and continued losses. While an acquisition by a bigger company might once have been an aspiration, further fundraisings seem to be the more likely outcome.

The head of the US arm of a major Korean government development institute talks to Scrip about why biotechs and pharma firms are flocking to Boston, how the organization is providing support and what the main challenges are.