WELCOME TO FIERCE LIFE SCIENCES WEEKLY DIGEST Even before revealing a plan earlier this year to eliminate 8,000 jobs, Novartis cut loose three of its C-suite executives. Now it looks like more leaders could face the chopping block: Among the 1,400 employees the pharma giant plans to lay off in Switzerland next year, up to half will be from leadership positions. Meanwhile, Novartis has paused dosing in a phase 2b trial of its oral Huntington’s disease med, branaplam, after early signs of peripheral nerve damage. And in the global medical research ecosystem, we’ve collected the world’s top 10 R&D institutions—and many large players did not make the cut. Those stories and our other top reads of the week follow below. | |
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Featured Story | By Kevin Dunleavy Of the 1,400 jobs Novartis plans to cut in its home country of Switzerland, up to half will be leadership positions, the company said during a media event Tuesday in Zurich. The news comes after the company revealed in June that it would slash 8,000 jobs in order to save $1 billion. read more |
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Top Stories Of The Week By Gabrielle Masson After seeing signs of side effects in some participants, Novartis has suspended dosing in its phase 2b Huntington’s disease trial assessing branaplam. Specifically, the review found that branaplam may cause peripheral neuropathy. read more By Max Bayer Advances in the biomedical industry are often a function of quality research produced at academic research institutions around the world. This year's list of top R&D outposts had a number of changes, namely the addition of more Chinese institutions. read more By Kevin Dunleavy The lack for adequate options to treat major depressive disorder has been well documented. Then came the pandemic, adding more patients diagnosed with MDD and heightening the unmet need. With that, the timing is good for the approval of a potentially game-changing drug to treat MDD. On Friday, the FDA signed off on Axsome Therapeutics’ Auvelity, the first rapid-acting oral treatment for MDD. read more By Zoey Becker A former Kadmon consultant pled guilty to insider trading ahead of Sanofi's September 2021 buyout of the small drugmaker. Frank Glassner made $368,000 trading off of nonpublic information, the feds say. read more By Andrea Park A spinal cord stimulation device newly approved in the U.S. one-ups other pain relief devices—or, perhaps, six-ups them—by treating multiple areas of the body at once. read more By Max Bayer More than a month after axing 94 employees, PACT Pharma is culling its lead asset and diverting 54 of the laid-off employees to a new business development venture that's yet to be named. read more By Fraiser Kansteiner Teva Parenteral Medicines is letting go of 305 staffers at its site at 19 Hughes, Irvine, California, according to a local Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. In a statement, the company said it's moving to close the troubled site. read more By Gabrielle Masson Former Takeda exec Thomas Willemsen will be taking the reins as Tessa Therapeutics' new president and CEO as the CAR-T biotech gears up in anticipation of several clinical milestones. read more By Ben Adams BeiGene is building up its oncology franchise but, to help boost awareness of cancer drugs, is tapping McKesson’s real-world evidence business Ontada for a series of new campaigns. read more By Zoey Becker Cancer-associated fibroblasts are commonly believed to induce drug resistance. But when researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center took a closer look at the fibroblasts, they discovered that while some induce drug resistance, some induce drug sensitivity. read more By Teresa Carey This week on "The Top Line," we discuss Genentech’s Greg Rippon's remarks on missing the mark in terms of diverse trial recruitment and how the company hopes to get it right in the future. We'll also chat about a new report on brand awareness for diabetes drugs. read more By Annalee Armstrong Each year at Fierce, we spotlight women who are leading the way in the life sciences, from industry professionals and academics to venture capitalists and regulatory officials. read more Resources Sponsored by: Ferma.AI, a Product of ZoomRx Improve your congress competitive intelligence and cut down costs by 50% Sponsored by: Catalent Learn more about how the transition from early to late phase of a small molecule program plays a pivotal role in a program’s ultimate success. Sponsored by: Bio-Techne Advanced research requires advanced tools. Our next-generation ELISA takes a fraction of the time to run eight analytes simultaneously while saving your sample volume. Simply load, scan, and insert your cartridge and come back to fully analyzed results in 75 minutes. Rethink your ELISA, with Ella. 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