As it rolls out the first jabs of its Covid-19 vaccine in the US, J&J already has its eyes on the next pandemic. Now, it’s willing to bet up to $780 million on a new class of drugs that Cidara Therapeutics says could take out all strains of the flu.

Janssen, J&J’s Belgian subsidiary, is plunking down $27 million upfront for access to Cidara’s lead antiviral conjugate CD388, which CEO Jeffrey Stein says has the potential to treat and protect against all flu strains with a single dose. The deal is one example of the next wave of pipeline work being established as the US begins to get its hands around the current pandemic.

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Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.

With the busiest days of June now behind us, we’re starting to think seriously about the second half of the year. In August, we have scheduled a special report where Endpoints will compile a list of the 20 most influential R&D executives in biopharma. Know a luminary who should definitely be included? Nominate them now.

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For years, innovation in oncology has been a crapshoot with Big Pharma — the whales at the table — dropping the big bucks for the key to the next generation of tumor fighters. Bristol Myers Squibb hasn’t exactly made a name for being an innovator in the space, but that doesn’t mean it won’t splash in when it sees a potential winner.

Now, with a massive check in hand, the drugmaker is willing to put its intuition to the test.

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Athira Pharma, the Alzheimer’s biotech that emerged out of obscurity last year and raised nearly $400 million for a dark-horse approach to treating neurodegeneration, has found itself in sudden turmoil.

On Tuesday evening, the company released a terse statement announcing that CEO and founder Leen Kawas had been placed on administrative leave while an independent review board investigated “actions stemming” from her doctoral research at Washington State University. Mark Litton, who joined the company as COO two years ago, will take over day-to-day operations, they said.

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FibroGen’s long-awaited review for anemia med roxadustat is just weeks away, and there’s good reason to believe the outcome won’t swing in its favor after a data manipulation scandal and tepid analyst consensus on the drug’s chances. With its future murky, FibroGen is now opening the pocketbook to refresh its pipeline for whatever the next phase may be.

FibroGen will shell out $25 million in cash for a global license to Boston-area biotech HiFiBiO’s galectin-9 platform targeting immuno-oncology and autoimmune disorders, the partners said Thursday.

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Samantha Du’s Zai Lab has earned its reputation as a Chinese oncology partner of choice with an aggressive licensing strategy to tap that growing market. Now, a West Coast bispecifics player with a lead collaboration molecule already identified will add its name to Zai Lab’s growing rolodex.

Zai Lab will shell out $55 million upfront — $25 million in cash and $30 million in equity — for a mix of Asian and global rights to four of San Francisco-based MacroGenics’ bispecific antibodies, with one lead molecule already in development, the partners said Wednesday.

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The FDA’s controversial approval of Biogen’s Aduhelm drug for Alzheimer’s disease has been met with fierce resistance from all corners of the biopharma industry, but few seem to be as upset with the decision as ALS patients and advocacy groups.

For all that’s already been written and discussed about the agency’s announcement, from the drug’s exorbitantly high price of $56,000 per year to criticism over lowered standards, ALS patients see something more. ALS patients and associations say they largely regarded Aduhelm’s approval as a bittersweet double standard: happy that those with Alzheimer’s have a new drug available, but questioning how the FDA evaluated Biogen’s drug compared to the experimental programs being studied for their own disease.

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