Interviews

The ex-GSK supply head Ian McCubbin will join the independent UK organization aimed at advancing cell and gene therapies, but notes issues with scale and manufacturing ahead.

With up to $100m from Abingworth and a recent $75m FOPO, CymaBay has runway to await pivotal data in primary biliary cholangitis in 2023 for seladelpar, after the candidate failed in NASH. It sees a significant market opportunity in the second-line setting cornered by Intercept.

Nearly a year into the job, research chief Christian Rommel tells Scrip he is impressed with Bayer's arm's length approach to running acquired firms like AskBio and BlueRock and the task ahead is to deliver on the potential they offer, while getting later-stage projects across the approvals finishing line.

MIG Capital’s Matthias Kromayer looks back at the huge success of its long-term backing of BioNTech and discusses the group’s next big life sciences investments, but warns that realism and hard work are needed to achieve another breakthrough.

The Swiss giant is paying up to $1.5bn upfront to get hold of Gyroscope's AAV2-based one-time investigational gene therapy for geographic atrophy, an advanced form of dry AMD that leads to irreversible vision loss.

Ocugen’s mutation-agnostic candidate for retinitis pigmentosa and leber congenital amaurosis is set for Phase I trials in the US. In this exclusive audio interview, founder and CEO Shankar Musunuri speaks to Scrip about seeking partners beyond CanSino Biologics for the candidate while stressing Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine could hold promise against the Omicron variant.

Iris Zemzoum, Novartis Pharma's president for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, outlines how the company is shaping its strategy in the region, which comes with “extremes” in market profiles, via a distinct archetype that factors in commonalities between national healthcare systems. The company is also progressing interesting initiatives in digital therapeutics.

AstraZeneca and BenevolentAI claim their partnership is augmenting and accelerating validation of new drug targets.

Clinical trial initiations in cell and gene therapies and immuno-oncology are seeing a spike as the COVID-19 experience has shown the benefits of beginning research early, Parexel’s executive vice president says. In an interview with Scrip, Sanjay Vyas discusses a range of topics from diversity to the advantages of block chain and growth in China

The firm’s live-virus COVID-19 vaccine candidate BriLife is entering a late-stage study following Phase II success, sparking hopes that its spontaneous mutations could parallel those of VOCs.

BeiGene exec reveals Chinese firm's changing development strategy around key asset as further clinical results emerge.

Nandini Piramal, executive director, Piramal Enterprises, discusses how things have shaped in the group's pharma business, its continuing appetite for acquisitions, efforts to de-risk the supply chain for key starting materials and the outsourcing  "framework" deployed by industry.