Best of BioCentury 2024
A selection of the best stories of the year by BioCentury’s analysts
How do you decide what the top articles are in a year? The most broadly read ones? Ones with the most impact? Ones that uncover a new topic or address an old one in a new way? Ones that were the most interesting to write?
Often, but not always, those converge. At the end of a tough year, it’s tempting to either drink from the firehose of current events, or run in the other direction and absorb yourself in deep science, an escapism that’s also a business imperative in biotech.
BioCentury aims to serve all those appetites, and in this selection, we offer a tasting menu — enough to fill you up, and tide you over as we prepare new courses for next year.
With the selections below, we have chosen top stories ranging from tumor cell targets off the beaten path and innovations in lipid nanoparticles, aided by AI, to obesity, where pharmas are challenging Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NOVO B; NYSE:NVO) and Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY), and Alzheimer’s disease, where a false choice between symptomatic and disease-modifying strategies is confounding drug development.
In the regulatory world, endpoint innovation is a hot topic, with multiple myeloma an example of how drug developers are working with FDA to move ahead.
And a two-part interview with Susan Galbraith, head of oncology at Astrazeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NASDAQ:AZN), covers not only how she sees the future of cancer drug development unfolding, but how that company turned itself around to become one of the leaders in the field.
Despite a tough year on the finance front, some new sources of funding are emerging, including a new fund from Goldman Sachs as part of its strategy to help its portfolio companies scale. And while pharma deals offer another type of lifeline, pharmas started to pivot this year away from high-risk modalities and targets, perhaps further entrenching their recent turn to best in class over first in class.
Drug development came face to face with the geopolitical tensions that have been escalating, in particular with China. While innovators there continue to race at “China speed,” they now are solving for the limits of capital and geopolitics via their NewCo model for cross-border partnering.
Throughout the year, the Biosecure Act has hung over biotech, reflected in a March survey by BioCentury that found over 90% of companies expecting pipeline delays if Congress had passed legislation seeking to rein in Chinese CDMOs and genomics companies. That did not happen this year.
But the tensions with China will continue, and that’s only part of the threats and opportunities presented by the Trump 2.0 term. Washington Editor Steve Usdin has a series of articles on this and will continue to parse the moves and messages from the next White House for biopharma.
Finally, turning back to the science: BioCentury’s annual flagship issue, Back to School, takes a deep dive on what it takes to pick the right target: the technologies, tools and strategies that will guide this most essential step in drug development in the years to come.
Eyes on the target: Drug discovery’s new paradigm
By C. Simone Fishburn, Editor in Chief, Selina Koch, Executive Editor and Lauren Martz, Executive Director of Biopharma Intelligence
If success in creating groundbreaking therapies boils down to one thing, it can be argued that it’s about picking the right target. From there cascade the modality, indication, patient population and other features that define the product, but none of it matters if the target is wrong. Read More
Tumor cell surface targets off the beaten path
By Karen Tkach Tuzman, Director of Biopharma Intelligence
Hidden among the piles of ADCs and bispecifics against top targets such as HER2 are compounds targeting cancer cell surface proteins with less crowded pipelines. Presentations at this year’s ASCO and AACR provided a window into early-stage programs with less obvious targets, including a crop of neuronal regulators expressed by multiple solid tumors. Read More
LNP innovation: tissue specificity, aided by AI
By Danielle Golovin, Senior Biopharma Analyst
The longstanding challenge of getting lipid nanoparticles to the right tissues has limited the nucleic acid delivery modality’s applications, despite their size and immunogenicity advantages. Companies aim to overcome that bottleneck by engineering the particles’ subunits, with some turning to AI to learn the rules dictating tissue tropism, and steer clear of patent thickets. Read More
Pharmas challenging Novo and Lilly in obesity
By Stephen Hansen, Director of Biopharma Intelligence
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have clearly set themselves apart from other pharmas in the scale of their pipelines, revenues and business development activities in obesity. But with what is projected to be the largest-ever market opportunity, other pharmas aren’t sitting this one out. Or are they? Read More
Neurology’s false choice: symptomatic vs. disease-modifying
By Selina Koch, Executive Editor
Even as many drug developers celebrate anti-amyloid antibodies as the start of a new era of disease-modifying treatments for dementia, a set of up-and-coming biotechs aims to tear down the distinction between symptomatic and disease-modifying therapy. Read More
ODAC support for myeloma metric makes broader case for endpoint innovation
By Lauren Martz, Executive Director, Biopharma Intelligence
The clinical development toolkit for multiple myeloma is expanding with an FDA advisory committee’s unanimous support for a new accelerated approval endpoint. The change could shave years off development timelines and incentivize investment in early treatment lines. The move highlights the growing need for endpoint innovation in the face of improving standard-of-care treatments across cancer indications. Read More
Oncology at Astrazeneca: The journey to the top
By C. Simone Fishburn, Editor in Chief
Astrazeneca’s rise in oncology may turn out to be one of the industry’s big all-time turnaround stories. BioCentury sat down with one of its architects, Susan Galbraith, to discuss the factors behind the pharma’s growth in oncology, and where she sees cancer medicine headed from here. Read More
How Goldman Sachs’ life sciences strategy aims to scale private biotechs
By Paul Bonanos, Director of Biopharma Intelligence
Goldman Sachs’ investment in oncology company Alterome is the latest new deal from a strategy intended to position the firm’s portfolio companies to scale while still private, navigating a changing environment for biotechs as public markets’ expectations evolve. Read More
Pharma deals pivot from high-risk modalities, targets
By Lauren Martz, Executive Director, Biopharma Intelligence
The past 12 months have brought a surge in pharma dealmaking, and with that comes evidence of changes in external innovation objectives among the top pharmas. The first-in-class strategies that have defined dealmaking in recent years are giving way to best-in-class priorities. Read More
China biotech and the bear: a Perspective
By Jeff Cranmer, Executive Editor
Welcome to Shanghai, where a raft of licensing deals centered on new modalities, a handful of high-profile takeouts and a new style of start-up has invigorated the local biotech industry. Read More
Anti-China bills portend massive blow to biotech: BioCentury survey
By C. Simone Fishburn, Editor in Chief
Brace for impact. Legislation targeting Chinese CDMOs and genomics companies that is making its way through Congress, if passed in its current form, will deal a massive blow to biotech companies, with consequences likely to be felt not only throughout the ecosystem, but also by patients. The responses to BioCentury’s survey signal deep concern, primarily for the ability to replace manufacturing capacity, with views split on the wisdom and rationale of the legislation’s goals per se. Read More
Prepping for Trump
By Steve Usdin, Washington Editor
The new political reality in Washington presents opportunities, threats and a lot of food for thought for leaders of industries like biopharma that need effective public policy to thrive. Read More