Well, see you in Jan­u­ary 2023.

In a sur­prise about-face, #JPM22 will now be ful­ly vir­tu­al af­ter or­ga­niz­ers of the pop­u­lar biotech con­fer­ence de­cid­ed to pull the plug on a live event in San Fran­cis­co giv­en fears over the Omi­cron vari­ant and a grow­ing cho­rus of drug­mak­ers opt­ing out.

The move is no big sur­prise af­ter re­ports swirled about some of the in­dus­try’s biggest play­ers nix­ing plans to at­tend live and pres­sur­ing the bank to re­con­sid­er the an­nu­al meet at the West­in St. Fran­cis. STAT re­port­ed Tues­day that Mod­er­na and Am­gen, among oth­er large drug­mak­ers, had al­ready pulled out.

But the de­ci­sion will put a damper on bio­phar­ma’s new year. #JPM22 was en­vi­sioned as bio­phar­ma’s re­turn to the new nor­mal af­ter the pre­vi­ous year’s con­fer­ence was all vir­tu­al amid the height of the pan­dem­ic.

With live plans now can­celed, End­points News has al­so made the de­ci­sion to take its mul­ti-day hy­brid event sched­ule ful­ly vir­tu­al. That means no live cock­tail hour or net­work­ing events, but we will still be bring­ing you the biggest news sur­round­ing the con­fer­ence as well as in­sight­ful pan­els and fire­side chats pre­view­ing the new year.

We’ll be sad to not see our friends and col­leagues on site, but we en­cour­age every­one to still reg­is­ter for the event and join the con­ver­sa­tion. This year, even as Omi­cron swirls, is set­ting up to be a big one for the in­dus­try, and we’ll have some of the biggest names out there giv­ing us their takes on what’s next.

See you next year.

Eli Lilly has succeeded in its attempt to get the first non-covalent version of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase, or BTK, inhibitors to market, pushing it past rival Merck.

The FDA gave an accelerated nod to Lilly’s daily oral med, to be sold as Jaypirca, for patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma.

The agency’s green light, disclosed by the Indianapolis Big Pharma on Friday afternoon, catapults Lilly into a field dominated by covalent BTK inhibitors, which includes AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson’s Imbruvica, AstraZeneca’s Calquence and BeiGene’s Brukinsa.

The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted unanimously in favor of “harmonizing” Covid vaccine compositions, meaning all current vaccine recipients would receive a bivalent vaccine, regardless of whether they’ve gotten their primary series.

The vote marks an effort to clear up confusion around varying formulations and dosing schedules for current primary series and booster vaccines, as well as “get closer to the strains that are circulating,” according to committee member Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The CDMO arm of one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates has posted its year-end results and plans for 2023, which include new construction.

Samsung Biologics netted north of KRW 3 trillion ($2.4 billion) in 2022 revenue and an operating profit of KRW 983.6 billion ($799 million), which the company touted on Friday as “record-high earnings.” The revenue boost was 55% compared to 2021.

Novartis’ sickle cell drug, approved in 2019 and branded as Adakveo, has failed an ongoing Phase III, according to preliminary results.

The Swiss pharma giant unveiled early data from the ongoing STAND Phase III study on Friday, saying that crizanlizumab showed no statistically significant difference between the drug at two different dose levels compared to placebo in annualized rates of vaso-occlusive crises that lead to a healthcare visit over the first year since being randomized into the trial.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is calling on senior Federal Trade Commission officials to “closely scrutinize” two proposed pharma mergers.

Warren expressed concern over “rampant consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry,” in particular Amgen’s $28 billion plans to take over Horizon Therapeutics, and Indivior’s proposed acquisition of Opiant for $145 million upfront, in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan and Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter earlier this week.