Promising early-stage data from two companies looking to break into crowded hemato-oncology markets.

Emerging Company Profile: While vaccines target specific viruses, Dutch start-up Leyden Labs is hunting down commonalities in viral families and working on the delivery of intranasal molecules that can protect humans from both known and future viruses.

After last year’s Phase III failure in NASH, Genfit sees big opportunity in acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF), potentially with antiviral NTX. Its ongoing Phase III program in PBC as also is a potential revenue-driver.

A few years ago Pascal Soriot claimed to be the sector’s worst paid CEO, but share price-linked bonuses have bumped up his remuneration, and shareholders have now approved a new plan.

In this one-off podcast, hear in the inside story of how the Pharmaprojects’ Pharma R&D Annual Review 2021 is put together, its history and the trends it has revealed in R&D over the years.

Angela Merkel consulted company’s CEO before opposing IP waiver, backing the future of Germany’s new ‘big biotech’ company.

Biogen is Capsigen’s first partner, while Dyno Therapeutics has also entered into deals potentially worth billions with large drug and biotech firms.

Advances in small activating RNAs, pioneered by MiNA Therapeutics, have caught the eye of Eli Lilly, and could be the next platform to exploit gene control mechanisms to produce a new therapeutic modality.

Lilly signs licensing pacts with Cipla, Sun and Lupin for baricitinib in COVID-19, with possibly more in store. But will challenger Natco, which has apparently already rolled out its cut-price version of the JAK inhibitor, change tack amid the Indian government's mixed position on compulsory licensing issues in an ongoing court case?

Also, deals involving AbCellera/Angios, AstraZeneca/Alchemab, Kowa/Esteve, OSE/Veloxis, Tris/Park, Core One/Akome and Vertex/Obsidian.

The UK-headquartered life sciences investment firm has comfortably exceeded its target of $350m for a fund dedicated to taking on late-stage products, incurring all the clinical and regulatory risk and receiving a pre-negotiated return once the drug is approved.

The partnership helps close the gap between Nkarta and Fate Therapeutics in terms of the breadth of their pipelines.

Having been given a PDUFA target date of 1 January, 2022, Strongbridge is already preparing for a happy new year challenging Recordati's Isturisa for market share in the Cushing's syndrome space

Libtayo is the first immunotherapy to demonstrate an improvement in OS, PFS and ORR in advanced cervical cancer and approval in this indication could kickstart its lackluster sales to date.

The Belgian biotech's president, Bart Filius, tells Scrip that exiting the metabolic disease and osteoarthritis space and focusing on inflammation makes sense to "bring a bit more balance in terms of risk into our portfolio."

Chiesi may not be a big pharma giant but it is very good at spotting early-stage innovative projects and partnering with the likes of Moderna, Protalix and Bioasis to tackle respiratory and rare diseases, CEO Ugo Di Francesco tells Scrip.

The Irish drugmaker will have three approved commercial products for rare diseases – Mycapssa, Lojuxta and Myalept – with a potential fourth therapy on the way now Filsuvez has been filed for butterfly skin.

Expanded indications will be key for Novartis's Beovu and a successful diabetic macular edema trial has provided a fillip, a week after the wet AMD-approved drug posted a 44% slump in sales.

The pharmaceutical industry in Europe has attacked the US decision to come out in support of a relaxation of IP rights that is designed to boost global production of COVID-19 vaccines. But the move by the Biden administration could well cause other countries to rethink their opposition to the move.

The company has not even filed the TYK2 inhibitor deucravacitinib for psoriasis, but Bristol will be a new player in a category dominated by entrenched rivals.

Once the darling of biotech investors, Bluebird Bio’s go-it-alone strategy with Zynteglo has not paid off as German launch plans stall.

Market Snapshot: Acute myeloid leukemia is a serious condition that affects people mainly in late middle age, for which there is a large R&D pipeline of candidate products being researched by pharmaceutical and biotech companies, many of whom are using a targeted medicine approach.

INFOGRAPHIC: A snapshot of the industry in key performance indicators surrounding R&D taken in early 2021.

Market Snapshot: GSK's Blenrep and BMS's Abecma are the first of many drugs for the late-line setting. In many cases, the CAR-T may be the first choice, but some patients are unable to handle it or risk progressing while awaiting treatment.