Biogen trims research programs and tops estimates in Q1 earnings report.

Biogen will deprioritize certain gene therapy, stroke and ophthalmology assets as it fine-tunes the pipeline following a recent staff reduction; Morphic Therapeutic touted positive mid-stage data for its oral med for ulcerative colitis; Novartis is shedding around 10% of its pipeline as Vas Narasimhan’s campaign to turn it into a “pure-play” drugmaker goes full steam; the FDA placed a clinical hold on Arbutus Biopharma’s experimental PD-L1 that is designed to treat patients with chronic hepatitis B virus; Vedanta Biosciences has secured $106.5 million to run a Phase III in Clostridioides difficile and a mid-stage trial in ulcerative colitis; Eli Lilly is planning to start testing its weight loss treatment candidate in a head-to-head clinical trial against Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy this month.