Recent News

• Pharma bets a little-known form of cholesterol will underpin its next blockbuster heart drugs
  CNBC – April 27, 2026
  Pharma thinks it’s found the next frontier in preventing heart attacks. Novartis, Amgen and Eli Lilly are among the drugmakers betting that slashing levels of a particularly bad form of cholesterol could deliver the next blockbusters in cardiology. All three of the pharmaceutical giants are in late-stage trials to test whether drugs that cut Lp(a) can protect people from heart attacks. If they can, the opportunity could be massive: an estimated one in five people worldwide have elevated Lp(a), and there’s not much they can do to lower it. Evidence from human genetics suggests the idea could work, but drugmakers don’t know for sure. That makes the first late-stage trial results from Novartis, expected later this year, important for the entire pipeline.
• Regeneron wins FDA approval for first gene therapy for genetic hearing loss
  Reuters– April 23, 2026
  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Regeneron’s gene therapy ‌for a rare genetic form of deafness, the company said. This approval, granted under the FDA’s new priority voucher program, marks the introduction of the first gene therapy for ​genetic hearing loss to the market. The gene therapy targets otoferlin-related hearing loss, a condition caused by variants in ​the OTOF gene that affects 20-50 newborns in the U.S. each year. Otoferlin is a critical protein in the ear’s inner hair cells, essential for transmitting sound signals to the brain. The therapy ​delivers a working copy of the OTOF gene to replace the non-functional ​otoferlin protein using a modified, non-pathogenic virus, delivered via an infusion into the cochlea – a bony ‌cavity ⁠within the inner ear.
• Why these treatments for one of the deadliest cancers are stirring such hope
  Washington Post – April 22, 2026
  Experimental therapies with radically different approaches are stirring a wave of optimism that survival rates could substantially improve for pancreatic cancer, one of the most stubbornly lethal forms of the disease. Giving doctors and patients more options to standard chemotherapy would “increase shots on goal” and perhaps even make the dreaded diagnosis manageable over a number of years, according to experts. The furthest along and generating the most excitement is a pill developed by Revolution Medicines, which inhibits a protein that signalscancer cells to multiply and drives tumor formation and growth. Phase 3 clinical trial results announced this month showed patients treated with the new drug, called daraxonrasib, had median survival of 13.2 months compared to 6.7 months for people receiving chemotherapy.
• Nektar surges again as alopecia drug shows new promise in extension study
  BioPharma Dive – April 20, 2026
  Alopecia areata affects an estimated 2% of the population and occurs when malfunctioning T cells attack hair follicles. Rezpegaldesleukin activates IL-2, a protein on immune defenders known as “regulatory” T cells that can help bring the overactive response under control. The Phase 2 trial called REZOLVE-AA initially enrolled 92 people and randomized them to receive one of two active doses or a placebo twice monthly. It measured the treatment’s effects on what’s known as the “Severity of Alopecia Tool,” a zero to 100 score in which the top score means complete baldness of the scalp. Any score over 50 is considered “severe.”
• New Antibody-drug Conjugate Shows Clinical Benefit for Advanced Platinum-resistant Ovarian Cancer
  AACR / Lambda Bio – April 22, 2026
  Patients with advanced platinum-resistant ovarian cancer whose disease had progressed on standard therapy experienced clinical benefit when treated with the investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) QLS5132, according to results from a phase I clinical trial presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2026, held April 17-22. Patients diagnosed with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer face both a poor prognosis and limited treatment options, explained Tao Zhu, MD, chief physician and vice president of Zhejiang Cancer Hospital in China, who presented the study.
• Lilly’s new obesity pill passes heart safety test in diabetes
  BioPharma Dive – April 16, 2026
  Drugs that act on the metabolic hormone GLP-1 were first sold for diabetes. The first, Lilly and Amylin Pharmaceuticals’ Byetta, was approved in 2005 to help control blood sugar. Only in more recent years have their weight loss benefits become clearer. Still, the available injectable GLP-1 drugs generate more money as diabetes treatments than they do in obesity. obesity. And, for Lilly, an oral GLP-1 medicine for the condition would fill out an existing hole in the company’s portfolio. In the latest trial, investigators enrolled 2,749 people who had diabetes and elevated blood sugar while taking up to three other treatments. Those recruits were randomized to receive either Foundayo or insulin glargine, a once-daily injection. They were followed up for up to two years to test for the occurrence of heart attacks, strokes, hospitalization for angina or a fatal cardiovascular event.
• Travere wins long-awaited approval for kidney disease drug
  BioPharma Dive –  April 14, 2026
  Filspari has undergone an unusual regulatory journey on its way to an approval in FSGS, a disease that causes progressive kidney scarring and, ultimately, organ failure. Travere originally licensed the drug in 2012, when it was known as Retrophin and run by Martin Shkreli. Filspari’s path was straightforward in IgAN, where testing led to an accelerated approval and steady growth since. The drug generated $322 million in U.S. net product sales last year, more than doubling its numbers from the prior year. But Filspari missed the main goal of a Phase 3 trial in FSGS in 2023, failing to meaningfully improve kidney function compared to an available treatment after two years. That result clouded Filspari’s future, but Travere pushed forward in FSGS nonetheless, highlighting instead the drug’s ability to reduce excess protein levels in the urine.
• Allogene data suggest ‘off-the-shelf’ CAR-T could delay relapse in lymphoma | BioPharma Dive
  BioPharma Dive – April 13, 2026
  Allogene spun out of Pfizer’s cell therapy work in 2018 with plans to prove that donor-derived, or “allogeneic” cell therapies could prove a more convenient alternative to their personalized CAR-T counterparts. But like many of its peers, Allogene suffered several setbacks along the way. It’s lost most of its market value since going public. In 2024, though, Allogene came up with a new way to show allogeneic treatments might have an important role to play in lymphoma. Rather than position cema-cel in settings where CAR-T therapies like Breyanzi and Yescarta are available, it set its sights earlier, testing the treatment in people who are at risk of relapse after receiving a widely used drug regimen known as R-CHOP.
• Revolution Medicines says its potential breakthrough pancreatic cancer drug succeeds in late-stage trial
  CNBC – April 13, 2026
  Revolution Medicines’ drug for pancreatic cancer succeeded in a highly anticipated Phase 3 trial, almost doubling the typical length of survival and slashing the risk of death by 60% versus chemotherapy, the company said. RevMed said its daily pill, daraxonrasib, met all primary and secondary endpoints in a trial of people whose cancer had already progressed on another treatment. People who took daraxonrasib typically lived for 13.2 months versus 6.7 months for people who took chemotherapy, an increase of 6.5 months, RevMed said in a press release. “These are dramatic, practice-changing outcomes, and our focus now is moving quickly to bring this potential new treatment option to patients who urgently need new treatment,” RevMed CEO Mark Goldsmith said in an interview.
• Regional Spotlight: Santa Monica Bets Big – Los Angeles Business Journal
  Los Angeles Business Journal – April 13, 2026
  For more than a decade, Jeremy Agresti wanted to build his biotech company in Los Angeles. Living in Santa Monica with his wife, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, he recognized the talent pool of graduate and post-doctorate students from UCLA, California Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California who would rather stay on the Westside. Yet they ended up leaving for jobs in the Bay Area and other cities with a growing tech sector. So consequently, Agresti commuted. For years, he flew to Northern California midweek, where his company Triplebar – a biotech startup using artificial intelligence to engineer biological systems for health and nutrition applications – was headquartered in the Bay Area’s life sciences cluster.