The Top Line

This week on “The Top Line,” we're joined by Fierce Biotech Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong and Fierce Pharma Marketing Senior Editor Ben Adams. We're diving into our recent spin on March Madness at Fierce.

This time around, Fierce Biotech kicked off its inaugural Best Biotech Name tournament, while over at Fierce Pharma Marketing, we held our biannual Drug Names tournament.

The editors discuss what makes a company or drug name t...

Jeff Beck of BioCare is in the hotseat for this edition of The Top Line.

Beck is the Chief Development Officer at the company, which stands tall as a pioneer in specialty product distribution with over 40 years of experience dating back to hemophilia therapies.

During the conversation, Beck provides an inside look at the rapidly evolving specialty distribution landscape. He outlines how the patient-centric model is working well a...

This week on "The Top Line," we explore biopharma layoffs in the first quarter of 2024. 

Using data from Fierce Biotech's layoff tracker, Gabrielle Masson and Max Bayer analyze the trends of layoffs in the first quarter of 2024, comparing them to previous years. With a notable number of layoff rounds marking the start of the year, they examine the factors behind this ongoing challenge while also highlighting positive industry deve...

This week on “The Top Line,” we explore peripheral arterial disease, a serious health issue that is often overlooked and undermanaged.  

Join Editor-in-Chief of Fierce Life Sciences and Healthcare Ayla Ellison as she sits down with Kumar Madassery, M.D., Director of the Peripheral Vascular Intervention & CLI Program at Rush University Medical Center. They discuss the hidden dangers of PAD, and Dr. Madassery emphasizes the impo...

This week on "The Top Line," we explore our annual special report on the top money raisers in the biotech industry.

Which company raised the most funding in 2023? What does the biotech financing landscape look like for this year? Fierce Biotech's Annalee Armstrong and Max Bayer answer those questions and many more in today's episode. They also discuss the details of the special report and share some of the stories behind the numbe...

This week on “The Top Line,” we explore the European biotech investment landscape. 

Fierce Biotech’s James Waldron sits down with Maina Bhaman, a Partner at Sofinnova Capital Strategy, who provides insights into how investors are approaching the European biotech sector. 

To learn more about the topics in this episode: 

• 'The fundamentals are really strong': Why investors are staying loyal to European biotech in 2023
• 'Optim...

This week on “The Top Line,” we’re diving into the topic of diversity in clinical trials, examining both the progress made and the ongoing work needed to ensure inclusivity. 

In this episode, Fierce Biotech Senior Editor Annalee Armstrong engages in a conversation with Karen Correa, Ph.D., Head of Global Clinical Operations at Takeda and Executive Sponsor of Trial Diversity. Correa shares her insights into why it's imperative for ...

This week on “The Top Line,” we’re speaking with Jared Baeten, MD, Ph.D., Vice President, HIV Clinical Development, Gilead Sciences about how advancements in HIV treatment research have enabled individuals to lead longer and healthier lives by taking and staying on medication. Nevertheless, HIV persists as a significant public health challenge. To end the HIV epidemic, it is crucial to go beyond a biomedical approach and fully inte...

The FDA recently asked the six marketed CAR-T therapies to add a new boxed warning item on their labels to reflect the risk of secondary T-cell cancers. This decision follows an investigation into the new safety signal from postmarketing adverse event reports and clinical trials. 

In today’s episode, Fierce Pharma’s Angus Liu talks with regulatory experts Mwango Kashoki, M.D., SVP, Global Head of Regulatory Strategy at Parexel, an...

This week on “The Top Line,” we explore the impact of environmental, social and governance measures, commonly known as ESG, on the pharmaceutical industry. 

Fraiser Kansteiner of Fierce Pharma engages in a conversation with Jim Greffet, Head of ESG Strategy at Eli Lilly, to gain insights. Greffet makes a compelling business case for integrating ESG into the core of drugmakers' DNA. He also discusses Eli Lilly’s specific ESG initia...

Gene editing’s therapeutic application has transitioned from hypothetical to reality, marked by the recent approval of a CRISPR-based therapy for sickle cell and beta thalassemia. In the wake of these developments, new biotech companies are springing up spurred by advancements that redefine what conditions might soon become treatable.  

One contender in this rapidly changing landscape is Verve Therapeutics. This week on "The Top L...

This week on “The Top Line,” we explore the most anticipated drug launches of 2024. Editor-in-Chief Ayla Ellison engages in a conversation with Fierce Pharma Marketing Senior Editor Ben Adams about the drugs likely to launch this year with the most significant sales potential by 2028.

To learn more about the topics in this episode:

• Top 10 most anticipated drug launches of 2024
• BMS unwraps $14B deal for Karuna, adding a sch...

Should physicians consider the psychological status of patients more when developing and delivering treatment plans? What knowledge barriers are there to this? And how can these barriers be overcome?

These questions lie at the heart of what John Kane has been pursuing as a healthcare communications and education expert for more than 30 years.

As Managing Director of MedThink Communications, having run his own agency for 17 years,...

In this episode, Dr. Beate Mueller-Tiemann, Chief Technology Officer at Cytiva, joins Fierce Life Sciences’s Stephanie Butler.

Having spent almost all of her career working within large pharmaceutical enterprises such as Sanofi and Bayer, Beate made the switch to Cytiva in the early part 2023.

Her role at Cytiva involves overseeing teams which create and bring high-quality products and innovative manufacturing and R&D process...

While generative AI has dominated the spotlight in the past year, machine learning programs have already been significantly impacting patients and physicians for several years. The question now arises: how will the emergence of programs like ChatGPT, coupled with increasing calls to scrutinize their safety, influence the adoption of new AI programs and diagnostics in healthcare?  

This week on “The Top Line,” Fierce’s Conor Hale i...

While it’s a known fact that women, on average, live longer than men, a recent report unveils a nuanced reality—women also spend more of their lives grappling with poor health. 

This week on “The Top Line,” Ayla Ellison, editor-in-chief of Fierce Healthcare and Life Sciences, explores the root causes behind this disparity and the multifacted nature of the women’s health gap. She's joined by one of the lead authors of the report, V...

At Fierce Pharma, the arrival of a new year is synonymous with the release of our annual special report on drug approvals. This week on “The Top Line,” Fierce Pharma’s Eric Sagonowsky and Kevin Dunleavy, both instrumental in creating the special report, are breaking down the numbers and sharing key insights into the landscape of drug approvals in 2023. 

To learn more about the topics in this episode: 

• 2023 drug approvals: A...

This week on "The Top Line," Fierce Biotech staff writer Gabrielle Masson and senior editor Annalee Armstrong look back at the year in biotech, which was defined by massive layoffs across the industry. They also discuss their favorite stories of the year, including an appearance from a popstar whose reputation precedes her. 

To learn more about the topics in this episode: 

• Biotechs end year 'trading for nothing' as investor...