Regulators take over Silicon Valley Bank

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed the embattled bank and appointed the FDIC as receiver, regulators said Friday.

By Anna Hrushka • March 10, 2023

Canadian royalty investor buys into first-of-its-kind Type 1 diabetes drug

DRI Healthcare, which owns royalties on top-selling drugs like Eylea and Stelara, is paying $100 million for a piece of the Provention Bio drug Tzield that the FDA approved last year.

By Gwendolyn Wu • March 9, 2023

Explore the Trendline➔

Cell therapy

The continued emergence of CAR-T therapy has fueled research into next-generation approaches and new applications, such as its use in autoimmune diseases.

By BioPharma Dive staff

Merck pays $50 million for early-stage Epstein-Barr vaccine

Opko’s acquisition of ModeX paid off with a Merck deal that could earn the vaccine and immunotherapy developer hundreds of millions of dollars. 

By Jonathan Gardner • March 8, 2023

J&J-backed startup launches with $100M to build better brain drugs

Rapport Therapeutics aims to find new so-called receptor-associated proteins that could serve as targets for neurological disease medicines. Its most advanced drug is already in early-stage human testing.

By Jacob Bell • March 7, 2023

Flagship’s latest startup emerges with a plan for ‘smarter biologics’

Ampersand Biomedicines claims to be developing a way to make medicines that act only at the site of disease and spare healthy tissue.

By Gwendolyn Wu • March 7, 2023

GPCR-targeting drugs: A renewed focus on a ubiquitous group of proteins

As many as a third of FDA-approved drugs target GPCRs in some fashion, with uses ranging from treating diabetes to pain. But biotech startups say there’s still room to develop more.

By Gwendolyn Wu • March 7, 2023

Adaptimmune acquires struggling cell therapy rival following layoffs

The planned merger between Adaptimmune and TCR2 will extend their cash runway by two years, as a biotech downturn continues to pressure companies.

By Jonathan Gardner • March 6, 2023

Cancer drug startup Cargo raises $200M to solve CAR-T relapse

The biotech is developing a CAR-T therapy for lymphoma that targets a different protein flag than currently available cell treatments.

By Ned Pagliarulo • March 1, 2023

Amid industry turbulence, Chroma raises fresh funding to edit the epigenome

As many drug startups struggle to gain cash, Chroma has raised another $135 million to back its research, a new twist on genetic medicine.

By Gwendolyn Wu • Updated March 1, 2023

Vertex tiptoes further into Duchenne research with Tevard deal

An alliance with the startup brings Vertex an RNA-based medicine for the disease, adding to a portfolio that already includes a gene editing treatment.

By Ben Fidler • Feb. 28, 2023

Following another trial failure, a brain biotech considers ‘strategic alternatives’

Aptinyx has joined a lengthy list of drugmakers looking to cut costs and explore strategic options after hitting setbacks in key clinical studies.

By Jacob Bell • Feb. 28, 2023

Theravance, under pressure from activist investor, cuts back research, trims staff

The company is laying off 17% of its workforce and stopping work on inhaled JAK inhibitors in its latest restructuring move.

By Ned Pagliarulo • Feb. 28, 2023

How life sciences benefits from broader healthcare transformation

Digital transformation has much to offer life sciences as well as healthcare — and the synergies between the two can further optimize the power of digital health, clinical trials and patient outcomes.

Feb. 27, 2023

EQRx, having redrawn strategy, to trim workforce by 18%

Part of a plan to lower spending, the workforce reduction will involve layoffs as well as leaving positions unfilled after employees depart.

By Ned Pagliarulo • Feb. 24, 2023

Roche hands rights to lung cancer drug back to Blueprint

Weeks after the Swiss drugmaker wrote off Gavreto’s accounting value, the biotech will regain responsibility for its commercialization.

By Jonathan Gardner • Feb. 24, 2023

FDA approves Sanofi’s long-lasting hemophilia drug

Sanofi and its development partner, Sobi, claim the drug’s once-a-week dosing, and its effect on blood-clotting protein levels, will help it compete in the crowded market for hemophilia A treatments.

By Jacob Bell • Feb. 23, 2023

Moderna shares sink amid COVID forecasts, trial news

The biotech expects to earn at least $5 billion from sales of its COVID vaccine this year, which would be about one-third of what it made in 2022.

By Delilah Alvarado • Feb. 23, 2023

Jounce to lay off half its workers, merge with UK biotech Redx

The cancer biotech will combine with Redx Pharma, with the resulting company focusing on Redx’s programs for cancer and fibrotic disease.

By Christopher Newman • Feb. 23, 2023

Rubius, after layoffs and executive turnover, sets plan to dissolve

Four years after going public with a multibillion dollar valuation, the once high-flying biotech has decided to shut down and liquidate its assets. 

By Christopher Newman • Feb. 22, 2023

Moderna inks another gene editing deal

The messenger RNA specialist said Wednesday it is teaming up with Life Edit Therapeutics to develop therapies that can modify genes “in vivo.”

By Jacob Bell • Feb. 22, 2023

Biotech veteran Jodie Morrison on building drug ‘platforms’ and a support group for CEOs

There comes a time when companies with platforms need to focus on their most advanced prospects, Morrison said, rather than sink all of their funds into building the technology.

By Gwendolyn Wu • Feb. 21, 2023

Apellis wins FDA approval of first drug for type of vision loss

Syfovre is the first marketed treatment for geographic atrophy, a common and irreversible eye condition. But questions linger about its benefit and safety.

By Ben Fidler • Updated Feb. 17, 2023

Talaris restructures, ending effort to develop a cell therapy for kidney transplants

Following a patient death and difficulty enrolling study participants, the company is laying off a third of its staff and ending a pair of studies for a two-decade-old program once owned by Novartis.

By Ben Fidler • Feb. 16, 2023

With Aera, CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang goes after gene therapy’s delivery problem

The company’s platform technology is built on research from Zhang’s lab at the Broad Institute, which focuses on proteins that could be used to package and deliver nucleic acids.

By Gwendolyn Wu • Feb. 16, 2023

With sales falling, Biogen’s new CEO says transformation is needed

New CEO Christopher Viehbacher set the tone early into his tenure at the embattled biotech, quickly moving to cut jobs and trim research in the months that followed.

By Jacob Bell • Feb. 15, 2023