Ben Adams

Chichester

Senior Editor at Fierce Biotech

Senior Editor at FiercePharma

Senior editor of Fierce Pharma Marketing

Articles

Cancer biotech Inspirna winding down

3 weeks ago | fiercebiotech.com | Ben Adams

It’s been an inauspicious start to the first quarter as many biotechs are forced to cut back on staff or pipelines. Inspirna appears to be the latest victim of this trend, although the oncology company is going one step further by closing completely.
The top 10 pharma R&D budgets for 2024

3 weeks ago | fiercebiotech.com | Darren Incorvaia |Nick Paul Taylor |James Waldron |Ben Adams

While coming back down from 2023’s dizzying high, Merck & Co. still managed to hang on to the top spot of our annual R&D budgets in pharma list. Though Merck’s 2024 R&D spending plummeted by almost $13 billion compared to 2023, the New Jersey pharma still came in $700 million ahead of its closest competitor, Johnson & Johnson.
Theriva puts GvHD drug on backburner to focus on oncolytic adenovirus

1 month ago | fiercebiotech.com | Ben Adams

Theriva Biologics is putting more of its eggs in the VCN-01 basket as it unveils a change-up in its R&D focus. Last fall, SYN-004, also known as ribaxamase, finished a second cohort part of a phase 1b/2a test in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) patients for the prevention of acute graft-versus-host-disease (aGVHD). The Maryland biotech has since been given the regulatory sign-off to move the β-lactamase enzyme into a third cohort.
Chicago Hounds fly-half rated second-best player in world by Rugby 25

2 months ago | telegraph.co.uk | Ben Adams

The launch of the latest Rugby 25 video game has been mocked following some unusual player ratings, with a Sale Sharks hooker who has never played Test rugby and a journeyman fly-half playing for Chicago Hounds rated as the second-best players in the world behind Antoine Dupont. Sale’s Tadgh McElroy has been given a 90 rating, one point behind the best player in the game in Dupont and above the likes of Damian Penaud, Jordie Barrett and Caleb Clarke.
Inhibikase hits pause on Parkinson’s program over efficacy

2 months ago | fiercebiotech.com | Ben Adams

Inhibikase Therapeutics is pausing work on its experimental Parkinson’s disease drug risvodetinib and seeking “strategic options” for the med after it came up short in the efficacy stakes. The Atlanta, Georgia-based biotech revealed in a SEC filing Wednesday evening that whilst the drug had hit its safety and tolerability primary endpoint in a midstage test for untreated Parkinson’s patients, it had failed to reach the same goals when it came to efficacy.
JPM25, Day 3: GSK’s liver disease plans, the Biotech CEO Sisterhood, and more

Jan 15, 2025 | fiercebiotech.com | Ben Adams |Gabrielle Masson |Darren Incorvaia |James Waldron

Check out Fierce Biotech’s conference's kickoff coverage here and the full lowdown from Day 2 here. Check out all the latest news below... Monday 3:30 a.m. ET Jan. 13Yesterday, spots of pink could be spotted on the streets of San Francisco, and it wasn’t a coincidence. Members of the Biotech CEO Sisterhood urged allies to wear the color to underscore how few women continue to be represented in the throngs of blue suits at the conference.
JPM25, Day 2: Trump admin health picks ‘like a box of chocolates’

Jan 14, 2025 | fiercebiotech.com | Ben Adams |Gabrielle Masson |James Waldron |Darren Incorvaia

Welcome to Day 2 of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2025 in San Francisco. Yesterday, we saw the biggest deal of the week so far, and one of the biggest in recent JPM memory, when Johnson & Johnson snapped up neuro biopharma Intra-Cellular for a cool $14.6 billion. On the clinical side we saw GSK shell out just over $1 billion for GI cancer specialists IDRx while Eli Lilly, flush with its Mounjaro/Zepbound cash, paid $2.5 billion for Scorpion Therapeutics.
JPM25, Day 1: GSK’s billion-dollar bet, Bayer’s trial first, and more

Jan 13, 2025 | fiercebiotech.com | Ben Adams |James Waldron |Gabrielle Masson |Darren Incorvaia

The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco is back for 2025 and here at Fierce Biotech, we’re going to bring you all the latest updates live from the life sciences event of the year. As is tradition, we’ve already had a few notable mid-range deals and some bumper biotech fund raises in the week leading up to the event.
J&J strikes $14.6B deal for Intra-Cellular

Jan 13, 2025 | fiercepharma.com | Fraiser Kansteiner |Angus Liu |Ben Adams |Kevin Dunleavy

Welcome to day 1 of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the industry's most significant dealmaking event each year. For the 43rd edition of the JPM conference, Johnson & Johnson stole the spotlight off the bat, announcing a $14.6 billion acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies and its FDA-approved drug Caplyta, which treats schizophrenia or depression associated with bipolar 1 or 2 disorder.
Gilead roars into JPM25, inking $1.7B inflammation deal with Leo Pharma

Jan 11, 2025 | fiercebiotech.com | Ben Adams

Gilead continues its divergence out of its original infectious disease beginnings and into cancer and now, more deeply than before, into inflammation, penning a major $1.7 billion deal with dermatology specialist Leo Pharma on the eve of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference. The development and commercialization deal zeros in on Leo’s preclinical STAT6 research programs, according to the Jan. 11 release.