Reblozyl, a drug that spurs bone marrow to make more blood cells, helped nearly twice as many anemic patients with an early form of blood cancer prolong the need for transfusions compared to those who got an older therapy.

The results, which Bristol Myers Squibb announced Thursday evening, had been previously teased from a Phase III study called COMMANDS, which tested Reblozyl as a first-line treatment in about 350 adults with very low to intermediate risk myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, a blood cancer that prevents red blood cells from maturing and can progress into leukemia.

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Apellis and Sobi will discontinue development in ALS after their approved rare blood and eye disease drug failed a Phase II study.

The pair was trying to see if pegcetacoplan, greenlighted in two different indications since 2021, could also help patients with the fatal neurodegenerative disease. But pegcetacoplan missed its primary endpoint of the “Combined Assessment of Function and Survival” rank score after a year, and also missed several secondary goals.

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Eloxx Pharmaceuticals said it’s hoping to take its lead candidate into a Phase III clinical trial for an ultra-rare disease after the same drug failed a Phase II study in cystic fibrosis.

The RNA biotech announced Wednesday that it is planning on taking small molecule candidate ELX-02 into a pivotal trial for patients with Alport syndrome with nonsense mutations, a rare genetic condition characterized by progressive loss of kidney function. The company says there are about 9,400 to 13,000 patients who have this form of Alport syndrome, for which there are no approved treatments.

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The FDA delayed its decision whether to grant accelerated approval to Sarepta Therapeutics’ gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, pushing it back about one month to June 22.

Sarepta announced the delay in a news release on Wednesday morning, saying the FDA needs “modest additional time to complete the review, including final label negotiations and post-marketing commitment discussions.”

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Almost eight years after spinning out AstraZeneca’s antibiotics pipeline, Entasis Therapeutics has landed its first approval.

The FDA approved its Xacduro, made up of sulbactam and durlobactam injections, as a treatment for pneumonia caused by difficult-to-treat bacteria strains known as Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus complex (A. baumannii) among adult patients. Particularly among already vulnerable hospitalized patients, these infections can be deadly.

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PTC Therapeutics disclosed a string of disappointing news late Tuesday, revealing a Phase III flop, a pipeline reorg to cut gene therapy programs and its CFO’s sudden departure.

The dramatic shakeup — which will lead to layoffs of an unknown number of employees — comes just two months after Matthew Klein took over as CEO from longtime leader Stuart Peltz. Shares of the biotech $PTCT sank 21% to $46 in pre-market trading Wednesday.

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Pfizer’s attempt to catch up in the weight loss market picked up steam on Monday with research showing the company’s GLP-1 agonist helped people with type 2 diabetes shed weight.

With data published in the JAMA network, led by Pfizer VP Aditi Saxena, the Big Pharma took a step closer to staking its spot in the burgeoning R&D field for obesity drugs, many of which started as diabetes meds, and are touted as becoming the biggest drug class in history with more than $100 billion on the line.

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