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The joy ride for biotech is over. For a decade, the companies flourished, flush with cash, and fueled by excitement over new technologies such as cell therapy, gene editing and messenger RNA. But biotechs have laid off thousands of staffers in recent months, and several have shut down. Stock offerings have flagged, while the index of publicly traded biotech stocks has plunged. “What you’re now seeing is a filtering of the haves and have nots, between companies that have great assets and pipelines with the ability to raise capital and companies with bleaker prospects that struggle to raise capital and stay in business,” said Michael Yee, a Jefferies biotech analyst.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Expanesthetics has maintained its staff with no downsizing for the last several years.

New medicines need not be tested in animals to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, according to legislation signed by President Joe Biden in late December 2022. The change—long sought by animal welfare organizations—could signal a major shift away from animal use after more than 80 years of drug safety regulation.

This opinion piece describes aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act that may hamper pharmaceutical innovation: "The Inflation Reduction Act has eight provisions intended to reduce future drug prices. Some observers were surely pleased that Congress gave the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services new powers to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. They shouldn’t have been. The Inflation Reduction Act won’t noticeably reduce inflation and it will do little or nothing to lower the cost of healthcare. Forcing drug companies to charge lower prices will likely lead to fewer new drugs."

The Department of Health and Human Services officially transferred the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Wednesday, according to the Federal Register. ARPA-H was officially created as an agency in Public Law 117-103, as a part the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022. This transfer includes delegating the authority to the Director of NIH to administer, fund, and appoint personnel to the new agency.

Monash University has been ranked Number 1 in pharmacy and pharmacology, beating Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge. Monash University was recognised for a range of factors, including developing Australia’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and its work on developing life-saving treatment for women who die during childbirth in developing countries.