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Alphabet's AI Drug Lab Raises $2.1B With Barely Anything in the Clinic
Isomorphic Labs, the DeepMind spinout built on Nobel Prize-winning AlphaFold technology, just closed a $2.1 billion Series B, one of the largest private biotech rounds ever. The company just received FDA clearance for its first drug, ISM8969, to enter human trials in early 2026. What it also has: partnerships with Eli Lilly ($1.7B in milestones), Novartis ($1.2B), and J&J, plus sovereign wealth funds from Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and the UK all writing checks. Total external funding now sits at $2.7 billion.
Why it matters: When sovereign wealth funds across four continents independently back the same preclinical company, it signals that AI-native drug design has crossed from speculative to investable. The round sets a new benchmark for what computational biology companies can raise before generating clinical proof.
Read more →Regulatory & Geopolitics
U.S. Biotechs Are Moving Their Trials Abroad. The FDA Should Worry.
Seven biotech executives told Reuters the same thing: they're shipping early-phase trials to Australia and Europe because the FDA lost nearly 20% of its staff. One CEO reported two of eight assigned reviewers have already left. Australia's streamlined notification-based approval process and 43.5% R&D tax credit are pulling companies away from an agency in freefall.
Read more →China's Drug Licensing Deals Hit $136B, Up From $9B Five Years Ago
Chinese biopharma out-licensing exploded to $135.7 billion in 2025, with AstraZeneca alone signing an $18.5 billion obesity deal with CSPC. China's share of global early-stage drug programs jumped from 8% to 32% over the past decade. Every major Western pharma company is now buying Chinese drug candidates.
Read more →Clinical & Regulatory Wins
CAR-T Therapy Files for Its First-Ever Autoimmune Approval
Kyverna Therapeutics started a rolling FDA submission for miv-cel in stiff-person syndrome, a disease with zero approved treatments. Phase 2 results showed a 46% improvement in walking speed, and 67% of patients who needed walking aids ditched them entirely. The FDA agreed no Phase 3 is needed.
Read more →Pfizer Wins EU Approval for Hemophilia's Hardest Cases
HYMPAVZI just got EU approval for hemophilia patients with inhibitors (whose immune systems attack their own clotting medication). The Phase 3 data: a 93% reduction in annual bleeding events, from roughly 20 per year down to 1.4. Once-weekly subcutaneous injection, no IV required, no blood clots observed.
Read more →Deals & Pipelines
Boehringer Drops $478M on a Target Nobody's Heard Of
Boehringer Ingelheim licensed a preclinical antibody from Immunitas Therapeutics for up to 407.5 million euros. The bet: instead of blocking inflammatory signals after they're released, IMT-380 kills the rogue T cells producing them. It's Boehringer's second inflammation deal this year.
Read more →Lilly Launches $299 Zepbound Vials to Undercut Compounding Pharmacies
Eli Lilly is selling Zepbound in single-dose vials starting at $299 per month, a significant discount from the pen price. The tradeoff: you need a syringe instead of an auto-injector. The strategy targets patients using unregulated compounded tirzepatide, plus the 4.9 million people who lost insurance coverage this year.
Read more →Data Drops & Restructuring
A Once-Monthly Obesity Shot With Almost No Nausea? Early Data Says Maybe.
MBX Biosciences posted Phase 1 data for MBX-4291, a monthly GLP-1/GIP shot that produced 7% weight loss in eight weeks with only one mild GI event across all participants. In the obesity population, fewer than a third of patients stick with weekly injections past 12 months, so the convenience angle could be worth billions. Full data due Q4 2026.
Read more →The Post-Pandemic Vaccine Hangover Claims Another Company
Valneva is cutting its workforce and slashing revenue guidance as travel vaccine demand disappoints. The lifeline: a Lyme disease vaccine with Pfizer (Phase 3 data due in H1 2026) that could dwarf the travel business. Goldman has a Sell rating at 2.15 euros. The clock is ticking.
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