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The Pancreatic Cancer Drug That Got a 42-Second Standing Ovation
Revolution Medicines' daraxonrasib nearly doubled overall survival in metastatic pancreatic cancer (13.2 months vs. 6.6 for chemo), hitting every endpoint in its Phase 3 trial and earning simultaneous publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. ASCO's chief medical officer called it "probably the biggest advancement in the treatment of cancer in the past decade." The drug works by cracking KRAS, a protein scientists labeled "undruggable" for 40 years. It uses a molecular glue strategy to block multiple KRAS variants at once, covering over 90% of pancreatic tumors.
Why it matters: After four decades of failed attempts to drug KRAS, a first-in-class multi-selective inhibitor just delivered the largest survival gain pancreatic cancer has ever seen. If approved, it would rewrite the standard of care for one of oncology's deadliest diseases.
Read more →Policy and Pricing
Big Pharma Cut a Deal With the White House. Here's What They Gave Up.
The Trump administration threatened 100% tariffs on imported brand-name drugs, and 16 pharma companies (including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Merck) signed pricing deals to dodge them. Companies agreed to launch new drugs at international price levels and offer Medicaid discounts. Wall Street barely flinched; analysts called the financial impact "between nebulous and negligible." Smaller biotechs without the resources to cut deals or build U.S. factories face real cost penalties.
Read more →Deals and M&A
Gilead Drops $5 Billion on a German ADC Startup You've Never Heard Of
Gilead is paying $3.15 billion upfront (plus $1.85 billion in milestones) to acquire Tubulis, a German company founded in 2019 that builds next-gen antibody-drug conjugates. Tubulis's platform creates unusually stable ADCs loaded with more payload per antibody. The deal cements Gilead's transformation from an HIV company into an oncology powerhouse, with over $13 billion in deal spending in 2026.
Read more →UCB Bets $1.15 Billion That Lab-Grown Brain Cells Can Stop Seizures
UCB acquired Neurona Therapeutics and its one-time cell therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy. The treatment transplants lab-grown inhibitory neurons into the brain to rebuild broken circuitry. In 18 patients, the low-dose group saw a 92% median seizure reduction. Only 18 patients have been treated so far, so Phase 3 (planned for 2026) is the real proving ground.
Read more →Novartis Pays Up to $1.9 Billion for a One-Year-Old Company With No Clinical Data
Novartis signed a deal worth up to $1.9 billion with Antares Therapeutics, a Scorpion Therapeutics spinout hunting "undruggable" cancer targets. Antares uses chemical proteomics and machine learning to find hidden binding pockets on proteins the rest of the industry has given up on. The team already produced one $2.5 billion exit when Eli Lilly bought Scorpion's lead drug.
Read more →Gilead Pays $45M for a Preclinical Cancer Drug That Hasn't Touched a Patient
Gilead exercised its option on Kymera's KT-200, a molecular glue degrader that eliminates the cancer-driving protein CDK2 rather than just blocking it. Total cash to Kymera so far: $85 million, with up to $750 million in milestones. The deal adds targeted protein degradation as another pillar in Gilead's increasingly sprawling oncology strategy.
Read more →Clinical and Regulatory
The First Drug Ever Approved to Slow Disability in Progressive MS (But Not in the U.S.)
Sanofi's tolebrutinib (Cenrifki) won EU approval for non-relapsing secondary progressive MS, a population with zero prior treatment options. It reduced disability progression by 31% versus placebo by penetrating the brain and calming chronic inflammation that traditional MS drugs can't reach. The FDA rejected the same drug over liver toxicity concerns; same data, opposite conclusions on two sides of the Atlantic.
Read more →Science and Discovery
Moderna Wants to Build a CAR-T Factory Inside Your Body
Moderna unveiled mRNA-6007, an in vivo CAR-T program for lupus that would reprogram immune cells with a simple injection instead of weeks of factory processing. Traditional CAR-T costs over $500,000 per patient; an mRNA-based approach could drop that by orders of magnitude. No human has received it yet, and AbbVie-owned Capstan Therapeutics is already in Phase 1 with a competing approach.
Read more →Scientists Can Now Edit Human Embryos With Surgical Precision. That's the Problem.
Columbia researchers used CRISPR base editing to correct disease mutations in human embryos with far less genomic damage than older methods. But mosaicism and off-target edits persisted, and three major gene therapy organizations have proposed a 10-year moratorium on heritable genome editing. The science is outpacing the ethics, and nobody has a good answer for where to draw the line.
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