8 July 2025 US CAR-T focused biotech CARGO Therapeutics today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Concentra Biosciences, initially worth roughly $200 million. The news sent CARGO’s stock up as much as 9.6% to $4.81 in pre-market activity.
Radiant Biotherapeutics, a Canadian biotech advancing multi-specific, multi-affinity antibody (Multabody) therapeutics in cancer and autoimmune diseases, has announced the appointment of Deborah Geraghty as president and chief executive. 9 July 2025
Dutch privately held Amarna Therapeutics, which specializes in transformative gene therapies announced the formalization of an agreement with biologics manufacturing partner, Sweden’s NorthX Biologics, to accelerate the development of Nimivec, Amarna’s next-generation gene therapy platform targeting immune-mediated diseases. 9 July 2025
Shares of US biopharma Rhythm Pharmaceuticals rose 27.4% to $82.96 in early trading today, as it announced positive top-line results from its Phase II trial evaluating bivamelagon (formerly LB54640), an investigational oral melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) agonist, in patients with acquired hypothalamic obesity. 9 July 2025
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a label update with a new recommended titration dosing schedule for Kisunla (donanemab-azbt), Eli Lilly's once-monthly amyloid-targeting therapy for early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease (AD), including patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and the mild dementia stage of AD, with confirmed amyloid pathology. 9 July 2025
US clinical-stage biotech ProKidney reported statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful positive top-line results from the full Group 1 modified intent-to-treat (mITT) population of the Phase II REGEN-007 trial evaluating rilparencel in patients with CKD and diabetes. 9 July 2025
US antivirals specialist Gilead Sciences today announced a strategic partnership agreement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) to supply lenacapavir - Gilead's twice-yearly injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor - for the prevention of HIV as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). 9 July 2025
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have hosted a hybrid workshop on reducing animal testing. 9 July 2025
US pharma giant Merck & Co today revealed it has made a bid to acquire UK-based lung therapy company Verona Pharma, sending the latter’s shares up 20.4% to $104.61 in pre-market activity. 9 July 2025
New Jersey, USA-headquartered Champions Oncology, a translational oncology research organization, yesterday announced the full commercial launch of its radiopharmaceutical services platform. 9 July 2025
French biotech Ciloa is joining the race to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, armed with 6.5 million euros ($7.6 million) in public funding and a novel take on an old metabolic target. 9 July 2025
A new analysis from US data analytics firm Phesi has raised concerns about the viability of ongoing Phase III trials in atopic dermatitis (AD), pointing to a rising risk of failure driven by flawed trial design and overreliance on saturated investigator sites. 9 July 2025
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has filed for European approval of a higher-dose version of its obesity treatment Wegovy (semaglutide), aiming to expand options for patients who need stronger support for weight loss. 9 July 2025
Donald Trump has escalated his warnings to the pharmaceutical industry with a pledge to introduce import tariffs as high as 200% on drugs produced outside the USA. The US president said companies would be granted a grace period of up to 18 months before the measure takes effect. 9 July 2025
Debra Barker has been named chief medical officer (CMO) at Centauri Therapeutics, a UK immunotherapy company with a proprietary platform technology applicable across a wide range of therapeutic indications. 8 July 2025
San Francisco, USA-based biotech Centivax, which is developing durable, universal vaccines, today announced the close of a $45 million Series A led by Steve Jurvetson’s Future Ventures, with participation from NFX, BOLD Capital, Base4, Kendall Capital Partners, Amplify Bio, and existing investors. 8 July 2025
Diagonal Therapeutics, a US biotech focused on correcting dysregulated signaling with clustering antibodies that address the underlying cause of intractable genetic diseases, has announced the appointment of John Lee as chief medical officer (CMO). 8 July 2025
Switzerland-based MetP Pharma, pioneer in nose-to-brain drug delivery for nearly two decades, announced new data highlighting the advantages of its proprietary MetP Technology in delivering neuroactive peptides such as semaglutide directly to the brain via the intranasal route. 8 July 2025
German life sciences and pharma company Merck KGaA today revealed it has exercised its option with China’s Abbisko Therapeutics for commercialization of pimicotinib in the US and rest of world. 28 March 2025
Singaporean biotech Shanton Pharma has reported positive top-line results from a Phase IIb clinical trial of its investigational gout therapy SAP-001 in patients with refractory disease, a group that often fails to respond to existing oral treatments. 28 March 2025
US genomics firm Galatea Bio has raised $25 million in funding to expand its global biobank and accelerate the development of AI-powered tools for drug discovery and disease risk prediction, with a particular focus on populations historically left out of genomic research. 28 March 2025
The interleukin-2 (IL-2) therapies market in the USA is poised for major growth, projected to reach $4 billion by 2034, according to research from DelveInsight. 28 March 2025
Italian biopharma Chiesi Group has announced a major investment in Nerviano, near Milan, with the building of a new facility for the production of its therapeutic solutions. 28 March 2025
Germany-headquartered CureVac late Thursday announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has confirmed the validity of CureVac's European patent EP 3 708 668 B1 subject to amendments to specify the scope of protection. 28 March 2025
US pharma major Merck & Co has shared the first results from a late-stage trial of a subcutaneous version of its blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab), with data presented Thursday at the European Lung Cancer Congress. 28 March 2025
US clinical stage biopharma Candel Therapeutics has announced final survival data from a Phase IIa clinical trial of CAN-2409 in patients with stage III/IV NSCLC, inadequately responding to ICI treatment. 28 March 2025
German drugmaker Bayer has signed a global licensing agreement with China-based Puhe BioPharma, gaining exclusive rights to develop and commercialize an early-stage precision oncology therapy targeting MTAP-deleted tumors. 27 March 2025
Danish cancer specialist Genmab today announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved Tivdak (tisotumab vedotin) for the treatment of advanced or recurrent cervical cancer that has progressed on or after cancer chemotherapy. 27 March 2025
Cambridge, USA-based RNS specialist Wave Life Sciences has announced positive data from the Phase II FORWARD-53 trial of WVE-N531, which is an exon skipping oligonucleotide being investigated in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) who are amenable to exon 53 skipping. 27 March 2025
Genetic diseases company BridgeBio Pharma has announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved acoramidis, under the brand name Beyonttra, for the treatment of adults with transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). 27 March 2025
UK-based specialty pharma Kelso Pharma, which is backed by private equity investor Apposite Capital, announced that it has secured over £140 million ($180 million) of acquisition funding. 27 March 2025
US biotech Equillium reported Thursday that its lead drug candidate itolizumab failed to meet the main objective in a Phase III trial for patients with acute graft-versus-host disease, sending shares tumbling in pre-market trading. 27 March 2025
The US Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominees to lead two of the country’s top health agencies, approving surgeon Marty Makary as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and economist and physician Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health. 27 March 2025
Swiss ophthalmic drug company Alcon today announced it has acquired a majority interest in Aurion Biotech, a privately-held US clinical-stage company developing advanced cell therapies to treat eye diseases. 27 March 2025
San Francisco-based epigenetic editing company Epicrispr Biotechnologies has secured $68 million in the first close of its Series B financing. 27 March 2025
German family-owned pain specialist Grünenthal today published its 2024 financial results, marking a year of impressive resilience, strategic growth and operational excellence. 27 March 2025