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The First CAR-T Therapy for Solid Tumors Just Got Approved. In China.
After a decade of failures, the first CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumors is on its way to approval, and it came from a Shanghai biotech most Western investors have never heard of. CARsgen Therapeutics' satri-cel, which targets Claudin18.2 in advanced stomach cancer, had its New Drug Application accepted by China's NMPA. The pivotal trial was also a first: a randomized, controlled study of CAR-T in solid tumors, published in The Lancet. Response rates hit 22% versus 4% for standard care. CARsgen has partnerships with Moderna and a North American trial already running.
Why it matters: This regulatory milestone de-risks the entire concept of engineered cell therapy in solid tumors, potentially unlocking billions in investment across the field. It also cements China's growing lead in cell therapy approvals over Western regulators.
Read more →Deals and M&A
Merck Drops $6.7 Billion on a CML Drug Most People Have Never Heard Of
With Keytruda's $25 billion revenue stream facing a 2028 patent cliff, Merck is buying Terns Pharmaceuticals for $6.7 billion to get TERN-701, an experimental leukemia pill. Early data showed 74% of patients hitting major molecular response in 24 weeks. Leerink analysts say the price "vastly underestimates" a drug they project could peak at $6.2 billion in annual sales.
Read more →Eli Lilly Pays Up to $7.8 Billion to Break Into the Sleep Business
Lilly is acquiring Centessa Pharmaceuticals for $6.3 billion upfront (plus $1.5 billion in milestones) to get cleminorexton, a drug that restores the brain's missing "stay awake" signal in narcolepsy patients. Phase 2 data showed an 87% reduction in cataplexy episodes. The catch: Takeda's competing drug already has an NDA under review.
Read more →Biogen Bets $5.6 Billion That Eyes and Kidneys Can Replace Neurology
Biogen is acquiring Apellis Pharmaceuticals at a 140% premium, picking up SYFOVRE (a $587 million macular degeneration drug with 60% market share) and EMPAVELI (a kidney disease therapy with surging revenue). The real play: Apellis's nephrology salesforce gives Biogen a ready-made launch pad for its own late-stage kidney drugs.
Read more →Servier Drops $2.65 Billion on a Muscular Dystrophy Drug Before Pivotal Data
French pharma Servier is paying $1.55 billion upfront for Edgewise's sevasemten, a first-of-its-kind muscle protector that reduces contraction force in dystrophy patients instead of fixing the genetic defect. Phase 3 results arrive Q4 2026. If they hit, it becomes the first targeted Becker muscular dystrophy therapy ever approved.
Read more →J&J Pays $1 Billion for a Preclinical Startup Chasing Cancer's Most Undruggable Target
Johnson & Johnson is buying Firefly Bio, a four-year-old startup with zero drugs in humans, for its degrader antibody conjugate platform targeting KRAS. The technology combines ADC precision targeting with protein degradation, aiming to destroy cancer's most infamous driver protein. No DAC has ever been approved anywhere.
Read more →Gene Therapy and Discovery
Sangamo, the Company That Invented In Vivo Gene Editing, Just Got Sold for Parts
Sangamo Therapeutics filed for Chapter 11, and Eli Lilly ($50 million) and Astellas ($25 million plus milestones) are carving up its 30-year technology platform. The company once sat on billions in partner milestones. Revenue collapsed from $158 million to $6.4 million per quarter after Biogen, Novartis, and Pfizer all walked away.
Read more →Lilly Returns to the Same Shanghai Lab With a $1.9 Billion Deal
Eli Lilly signed a multitarget $1.9 billion collaboration with Abbisko Therapeutics, expanding a relationship that started with a single drug in 2022. The deal arrives as cross-border licensing between Chinese and global biotechs hit $137.7 billion in 2025, up nearly tenfold from 2021, despite mounting geopolitical tension.
Read more →Serapha Launches With $230 Million for a Gene Editor Born in China
Serapha Bio debuted with a $230 million Series A (more than double the average) built around a base-editing therapy licensed from Shanghai's YolTech. RA Capital and RTW co-led the round. The one-shot treatment for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency could replace lifelong infusions, but it's wading straight into U.S.-China biotech politics.
Read more →Policy and Funding
Eli Lilly Cut Off 50 Hospital Systems From Drug Discounts. Hospitals Are Furious.
Lilly stopped giving 340B discounts to roughly 50 hospital systems that refused to submit detailed dispensing data through its platform. Over 2,300 hospitals complied, but holdouts call the demands illegal. The federal agency overseeing the program has gone silent, and hospital groups are demanding congressional intervention to protect what they call safety-net lifelines.
Read more →A $330 Million Startup Is Picking a Head-to-Head Fight With Roche's Vabysmo
Ollin Biosciences raised $330 million (one of 2026's largest private rounds) to take its bispecific antibody OLN324 into Phase 3 against Roche's $4.1 billion eye drug. Early head-to-head data showed 90% of patients edema-free at week 12, compared to 57% on Vabysmo. Investors include ARCH, Blackstone, and a sovereign wealth fund.
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