Biogen’s poor third-quarter results cannot be blamed solely on the pandemic. Pipeline attrition and underperformance in most franchises pushes all the risk onto a dubious throw of the regulatory dice.

Early in 2020, company guidance was that pandemic-related effects would have dissipated in the third quarter. Issues specific to J&J and Roche leave this broad conclusion still up in the air.

Drugs that have failed in clinical studies often come back for another go, making the same mistakes for a new cohort of investors who missed the first failure. The global pandemic is also enabling this for once- or twice-failed drugs.

Batsu is the Japanese term for games that have penalties, unlike those which are just for fun. Seasoned investors are well aware of the risks of drug and vaccine development but many investors new to the sector are just learning of the downsides.

For a biotech launching its first product the pandemic has compounded the usual pressures of a competitive indication against deeper-pocketed competition.

After a slow start marked by product withdrawals and toxicity, recent deal-making activity has brought antibody-drug conjugates back from obscurity. But what has changed?