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Today’s Big News

Mar 4, 2024

Bayer pays $310M for European rights to BridgeBio's Vyndaqel rival


C4 brings the Mercks to the yard, with Merck KGaA paying $16M to join protein degrader hunt


Fierce Medtech's Fierce 15 of 2023 


Akero, bruised from earlier failure, soars as liver scarring improves in longer MASH trial


Vivoryon ‘profoundly disappointed’ by phase 2 Alzheimer’s fail as stock crashes


BioCardia rejigs phase 3 heart failure data to find a path forward for cell therapy


Iovance receives more good news as FDA lifts hold on lung cancer cell therapy trial


Fierce Biotech Fundraising Tracker '24: BlossomHill brings in $100M series B; Nocion raises $62M

The Top Line Podcast: Don’t miss out on the newest episode. Listen now.

 

Featured

Bayer pays $310M for European rights to BridgeBio's Vyndaqel rival

With the FDA mulling whether to approve BridgeBio’s acoramidis as a rival to Pfizer’s blockbuster heart disease drug Vyndaqel, Bayer has decided to pay out $310 million to scoop up the European rights.
 

Top Stories

C4 brings the Mercks to the yard, with Merck KGaA paying $16M to join protein degrader hunt

Apparently C4 Therapeutics' protein degradation tech brings all the Mercks to the yard. The Massachusetts biotech has signed on Merck KGaA in a $740 million biobucks partnership to find two degraders for cancer. 

Fierce Medtech's Fierce 15 of 2023

It’s one thing to design an experiment that succeeds in the lab. It’s another to design one that works in every lab—and every hospital, every doctor’s office, every home, or in the hands of every surgeon, every nurse and every patient.

How CDMO Wacker Biotech is inspiring innovation in mRNA therapeutics

Sitting down with Guido Seidel, Managing Director of Wacker Biotech, we explore some of the key challenges, opportunities and innovations for pharmaceutical companies to consider in mRNA manufacturing.

Akero, bruised from earlier failure, soars as liver scarring improves in longer MASH trial

Akero Therapeutics’ roller coaster ride has lurched once again. After a whiplash rise and fall, the biotech has bounced back with 96-week data linking its FGF21 analog efruxifermin to significant improvements in liver scarring in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.

NYC's Bold Move: Life Sciences Take Center Stage

Ready to shape the future of life sciences? Discover how NYC's strategic investments are driving change.

Vivoryon ‘profoundly disappointed’ by phase 2 Alzheimer’s fail as stock crashes

The notoriously tricky indication of Alzheimer’s disease has defeated another candidate, with Vivoryon Therapeutic’s lead asset missing all endpoints in a phase 2 trial and sending the company’s stock plunging 90%.

A new chapter for biotech: Confidence returns to the market

ICON Biotech survey shows that although challenges remain, optimism returns to strategically savvy biotech innovators

BioCardia rejigs phase 3 heart failure data to find a path forward for cell therapy

BioCardia’s data safety monitoring board already warned that the phase 3 CardiAMP cell therapy heart failure trial was not going to make the primary endpoint. And so the California biotech is showcasing some other endpoints instead, hoping to persuade investors that the autologous cell therapy has a future.

Iovance receives more good news as FDA lifts hold on lung cancer cell therapy trial

Iovance Biotherapeutics ended 2023 on a downer courtesy of a partial clinical hold from the FDA, but the situation has been resolved relatively quickly.

Fierce Biotech Fundraising Tracker '24: BlossomHill brings in $100M series B; Nocion raises $62M

Welcome to Fierce Biotech's Fundraising Tracker, 2024's version.

After PhRMA loss, AstraZeneca's challenge to IRA price negotiations is rejected

Less than three weeks after a Texas judge tossed a lawsuit by industry lobbying group PhRMA that challenged the constitutionality of the Inflation Reduction Act, a federal court in Delaware has done the same with a similar action brought by AstraZeneca.

Boston Scientific claims first US approval for drug-coated coronary balloon

Boston Scientific has received FDA approval for its Agent drug-coated balloon sized to fit within blocked or constricted coronary arteries, nearly a decade after it made its European debut.

Moderna lays off parts of manufacturing team after resizing COVID footprint

Moderna is laying off some employees within its manufacturing unit after shaving COVID production costs. The company previously disclosed plans to rightsize its COVID vaccine production footprint.

Teva slammed for breaching drug promotion code in earned media article

Teva has found out the hard way about the scope of the U.K. advertising code. The drugmaker refuted complaints about the alleged promotion of its drugs in an earned media article, only for the panel to rule it responsible for the content and find it guilty of discrediting the pharma industry.

'Cybersecurity is patient safety': What the ransomware attack on Change Healthcare should teach the industry

As the disruption caused by the cyberattack at Change Healthcare stretches beyond its tenth day, cybersecurity experts say that the incident could spur greater emphasis on enhancing protocols—and greater oversight from the feds.
 
Fierce podcasts

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CAR-T boxed warnings: What comes next?

The FDA recently asked the six marketed CAR-T therapies to add a new boxed warning item on their labels to reflect the risk of secondary T-cell cancers. This week on "The Top Line," Fierce Pharma’s Angus Liu talks with regulatory experts to understand the rationale behind the FDA’s decision and to discuss its implications for CAR-T candidates and their developers down the line.
 

Resources

Whitepaper

CNS Market Outlook, 2024

This paper assesses the current state of the broad CNS market, reviewing key expectations for 2024. It addresses Alzheimer’s disease, biomarkers, and advances in psychiatry in detail. It also provides a high-level look at the pain market and the evolving regulatory environment.

 

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