Volume 23 Issue 6, June 2024

‘Pre-mRNA trans-splicing’ drugs could offer an alternative to gene replacement therapies for genetic diseases — starting with Stargardt disease.

RNA has revolutionized modern medicine, creating great expectations. However, challenges with this class of drugs persist. In this Review, John Androsavich analyses lessons learnt from RNA modalities such as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNA), and discusses strategies to develop RNA drug platforms, improving their applicability, efficacy and safety profiles.

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is crucial for the elicitation of anticancer immune responses by therapy, but the successful development of ICD-inducing treatments is hindered by various obstacles. This Review provides an overview of the core mechanisms of ICD, discusses obstacles to the development of novel ICD modulators and assesses established and innovative therapeutic approaches for ICD induction.

The rise of drug resistance presents a significant challenge in the treatment of infectious diseases. This Review summarizes the status and mechanisms of drug resistance in malaria, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and tuberculosis, and explores strategies to address resistance that could be incorporated into drug development across these disease areas.

We review the biopharma deals of 2024 made so far, as well as profiling active partnering companies developing pharma’s next innovations.

We explore the latest developments in the vaccines field, through our editorial feature and showcase of companies.

Here we profile companies developing innovations for women’s health, a relatively underfunded market with few treatment options available for many conditions.