An FDA decision is looming for Alkermes’ ALKS 3831, a treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder that adds an opioid antagonist to a well-known antipsychotic to negate the weight gain and metabolic issues that come with the latter. An FDA panel will meet Friday to help the agency decide the treatment’s fate—and their major focus will be how the opioid antagonist will affect patients also taking opioids like morphine or oxycodone.

The aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma is infamously “cold” when it comes to immunotherapy, meaning it typically doesn’t respond to immune-boosting therapies because of immune-suppressing molecules in its environment.

In the U.S., about 37 million people live with kidney disease, which is more than 1 in 7 American adults. But Blaine McKee, the CEO of the newly unveiled Cambridge, MA, startup Walden Biosciences, hopes to change that.

Just two weeks after unveiling full data from its phase 1 program, Amgen’s KRAS inhibitor is back with more. The Big Biotech teased results from a phase 2 study that it says echo the efficacy seen in its closely watched phase 1 trial.

Germany’s Merck has decided to make a quick buck turfing out an unwanted bone drug to Novartis.

CRISPR evolved in bacteria as a form of “genetic vandalism,” as George Church, Ph.D., puts it, to fend off pathogens. That means it works very well in bacteria but runs into various obstacles when researchers try to put it to work in humans. Jennifer Doudna’s latest CRISPR company plans to surmount those hurdles with an entirely new CRISPR platform that does not rely on molecules found in nature.

Nearly two months after the FDA nixed its hemophilia gene therapy, BioMarin has a new early research chief. Kevin Eggan, Ph.D., a Harvard University professor and recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, will lead the company’s discovery programs, steering the development of its future pipeline.

After eight years as Sanofi’s chief scientist, Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., is calling it quits. He hands the reins to Frank Nestle, M.D., previously the company’s global head of immunology and inflammation and chief scientific officer in North America, Sanofi said in a tweet Friday.

Avrobio has licensed a Hunter syndrome lentiviral gene therapy from the University of Manchester in the U.K. The deal positions Avrobio to join Regenxbio and Sangamo Therapeutics in the race to develop gene therapies for use in patients with the rare disorder.

Dutch RNA specialist ProQR Therapeutics has hired eye disease specialist Naveed Shams, M.D., Ph.D., as its new chief scientific officer.