BioCentury
PODCAST | Finance

The bear is back: Marks’ ouster, tariffs and a tumbling XBI: a BioCentury podcast

Plus: How I&I companies are pursuing bispecifics that block two inflammatory pathways

March 31, 2025 11:47 PM UTC

Biotech indexes are tumbling after one of FDA’s last veteran leaders was pushed out by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the threat of tariffs weigh on a key biotech index. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s editors discuss the factors driving down the XBI, which has now crossed into bear market territory, the state of biotech stocks and the latest turmoil at FDA, now that Peter Marks has been ousted as director of Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER).

Plus, inflammation and immunology companies are finding ways beyond precision medicine to boost responses. BioCentury’s editors assess one approach — bispecific antibodies that block two inflammatory pathways instead of one.