Pfizer to deepen cost cuts as latest sales forecasts miss expectations
Pfizer on Wednesday upped the target for its cost-cutting program, revealing the additional spending cuts alongside a sales forecast for 2024 that disappointed Wall Street analysts and sent shares down to their lowest levels in more than a decade. Pfizer…
Supreme Court to rule on abortion pill access
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will review a lower-court ruling that would restrict access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone, bringing a high-profile battle over reproductive rights back to the same court that overturned Roe v. Wade last…
AstraZeneca to acquire vaccine maker Icosavax for up to $1.1B
Dive Brief: AstraZeneca on Tuesday reached a deal to acquire vaccine developer Icosavax in a deal worth up to $1.1 billion. Per deal terms, AstraZeneca will acquire Icosavax’s shares at $15 apiece, and could add another $5 per share to the…
FTC, in unusual move, leads Sanofi to terminate a drug research deal
Dive Brief: Sanofi terminated a licensing deal with biotechnology company Maze Therapeutics Monday after the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit alleging that the collaboration was designed to extend the French drugmaker’s monopoly in treating a rare disorder known as Pompe…
Tome Biosciences debuts with $213M and a new way to edit the genome
Dive Brief: Biotechnology startup Tome Biosciences emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $213 million in venture funding to develop a new gene editing technology it believes can overcome some of the limitations of existing methods. Called “programmable genomic integration,” or…
ASH23: Pharma branding, Editas’ high bar and clinical trial diversity
SAN DIEGO — At the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting, pharmaceutical branding is inescapable. Johnson & Johnson’s and GSK’s new logos are splashed across the side of phone charging stations. Sanofi, among others, let attendees know via hand sanitizer…
Life sciences leaders invest in process mining to accelerate digital transformation
The life sciences industry is evolving rapidly in response to macroeconomic shifts, regulatory changes, cost pressures, large data volumes and increasing competition. Leading organizations are investing in process mining technology to optimize their business processes, according to Everest Research Group’s…
‘No tolerance for failure’: An oral history of the first CRISPR medicine
The last line of this century’s most important biomedical research paper contained a hint of the scientific revolution to come. An ancient bacterial defense system, the researchers wrote in 2012, could be adapted to offer “considerable potential for gene targeting…
ASH23: CAR-T for autoimmune disease, real-world questions and sickle cell’s social media mentions
SAN DIEGO —The 65th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology got a dramatic introduction. On Friday, as researchers and doctors arrived here, the Food and Drug Administration approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease, an inherited condition…
Bluebird gene therapy, now approved for sickle cell, shows durable benefit in study update
The vast majority of the people who received Bluebird bio’s newly approved sickle cell disease medicine in a clinical trial remained free of the frequent pain crises typical of their condition, some for as long as five years, new study…