Prasad’s departure, the future of fibrosis therapies, and more — a BioCentury podcast

Clinical updates from psychedelics and obesity therapies also among episode’s highlights 

The second ousting of Vinay Prasad from FDA in the past eight months won’t lead to major changes at the agency, other than selecting a successor tasked with keeping FDA out of the news ahead of the coming midterm elections. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, Washington editor Steve Usdin lays out why the former CBER director was pushed out at FDA and what’s next for the agency following his departure. 

BioCentury’s editors also discuss the next wave of therapies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, including whether new candidates might go beyond slowing disease to halt or even reverse progression, the biological complexity that makes fibrosis so challenging, and what the 20-plus Phase II programs could teach the field about fibrosis biology.

Also up for discussion were recent clinical wins — as well as more complicated readouts — from psychedelic therapies; plus the latest data updates from obesity treatments, with a focus on amylin agonists.