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Lilly Spent $300M on a Startup With No Human Data. The Reason Why Says Everything About the ADC Arms Race.
Eli Lilly agreed to acquire CrossBridge Bio, a Houston startup founded in 2023 with zero clinical-stage drugs, for up to $300 million in cash. The prize: dual-payload antibody-drug conjugate technology that straps two cancer-killing warheads onto a single guided missile instead of one, potentially solving the resistance problem that plagues existing ADCs. CrossBridge's lead candidate, CBB-120, targets the TROP2 protein in solid tumors but hasn't even filed to begin human trials yet. Lilly is paying for a blueprint, not proof, at a time when pharma companies are reaching earlier and earlier in the development cycle to lock up next-gen ADC platforms.
Why it matters: This is Lilly's latest ADC-focused acquisition and signals that the antibody-drug conjugate M&A frenzy is accelerating, with buyers now willing to pay nine figures for preclinical platforms they believe can leapfrog first-generation competitors.
Read more →Deals and M&A
AbbVie Bets $745M That the Next Painkiller Won't Be an Opioid
AbbVie licensed two non-opioid pain candidates from China's Haisco Pharmaceutical for up to $745 million, though only $30 million lands upfront. Both drugs target NaV1.8, a sodium channel on pain-sensing nerves, blocking pain signals without touching the opioid system at all. One is already in Phase 1 trials in China; the other is still preclinical. The deal fills a gap in AbbVie's post-Humira diversification playbook and adds to the record wave of Chinese biopharma out-licensing, which hit $135.7 billion across 157 deals in 2025.
Read more →Amgen and Boehringer Both Killed Immunology Programs on the Same Day
Both companies axed early-stage oral immunology drugs tested only in healthy volunteers, citing low odds of success. Neither retreat signals an exit from immunology (Boehringer has 80+ pipeline projects; Amgen's TEZSPIRE franchise continues to grow rapidly). Instead, it reflects a new discipline: with Phase 1 success rates down to 6.7% and a roughly $300 billion patent cliff looming, Big Pharma is folding bad hands faster than ever.
Read more →IPOs and Financings
A Two-Year-Old Obesity Company Wants $528M From Public Markets
Kailera Therapeutics, built around GLP-1 obesity drugs licensed from China's Hengrui, launched its IPO roadshow targeting up to $528.5 million at a $1.77 billion valuation. Existing backers Bain Capital and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund have already indicated interest in buying into the offering. The company's lead drug, ribupatide, delivered 19.2% weight loss in a Chinese Phase 3 study, and a global Phase 3 trial that includes a semaglutide comparator arm is underway.
Read more →This Protein Detection Company Tripled Revenue and Wants a $1.1B Debut
Alamar Biosciences kicked off its IPO roadshow seeking up to $159 million at a valuation near $1.1 billion. The pitch: its NULISA technology detects proteins in blood at vanishingly low concentrations by tagging them with DNA barcodes and amplifying the signal. Revenue tripled from $25 million to $74 million in a single year, gross margins jumped from 34% to 56%, and each installed instrument generates over $400,000 annually in consumable sales.
Read more →Neomorph Raises $100M to Glue Cancer Proteins to the Cell's Trash Compactor
San Diego's Neomorph closed a $100 million Series B led by Deerfield Management to advance molecular glue degraders, drugs that trick cells into destroying cancer-causing proteins instead of merely blocking them. Its lead candidate, NEO-811, dosed its first kidney cancer patient in February 2026. The company already has partnerships with Novo Nordisk (up to $1.46 billion), AbbVie (up to $1.64 billion), and Biogen, a level of Big Pharma validation that's hard to ignore.
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