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Fulcrum Gutted Its Pipeline. Now a Migraine Startup Is Wearing It Like a Skin Suit.
Fulcrum Therapeutics lost its lead drug, axed 85% of its staff, and became biotech's version of an empty storefront. Enter Slate Medicines, a private migraine startup that just used Fulcrum as a shortcut to Nasdaq via an all-stock reverse merger. The deal attracted $245 million in oversubscribed financing from eight top-tier healthcare funds, including Frazier Life Sciences, RA Capital, and OrbiMed. Fulcrum shareholders will own just 5% of the combined company (though they'll pocket a $270 million cash dividend). Slate's lead candidate, SLTE-1009, blocks PACAP signaling to prevent migraines in patients who don't respond to existing CGRP drugs. Phase 1 data is expected mid-2027.
Why it matters: With only 10 biotech IPOs on U.S. exchanges in 2025, reverse mergers have become the preferred back door to public markets. This deal joins a growing wave (Damora, Yarrow, Serapha) that's quietly reshaping how biotech companies access capital when the traditional IPO window stays shut.
Read more →Clinical Wins and Setbacks
Argenx Cracks Open a New Market for Vyvgart (With One Asterisk)
Argenx's Vyvgart Hytrulo beat placebo by 15.4 points in a Phase 3 trial for autoimmune myositis, a disease with limited approved targeted therapies. The catch: the immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy subgroup nailed statistical significance, but the dermatomyositis subgroup missed. Wall Street shrugged off the asterisk, sending shares up roughly 16%. Every new indication widens the moat for argenx's FcRn blocker franchise against rising competition from UCB and J&J.
Read more →Amylyx Was Left for Dead. Then a Sugar Crash Saved It.
Two years after pulling its failed ALS drug, Amylyx reported that avexitide cut dangerous blood sugar crashes by 64% in post-bariatric surgery patients. The drug, acquired for $35.1 million, could become the first approved treatment for a condition affecting over 160,000 Americans. Amylyx is targeting a 2027 FDA filing, with no approved competitors in sight.
Read more →Regeneron Quietly Kills an Eye Trial After Mystery Safety Event
Regeneron terminated its Phase 1/2a TITAN trial testing REGN7041 in uveitis after a safety event the company hasn't disclosed. It's the second pipeline stumble of 2026 for the eye-care giant, following a melanoma miss that wiped out $9 billion in market value. All eyes now shift to a critical geographic atrophy readout later this year.
Read more →Deals and M&A
A Three-Year-Old AI Startup Just Wrote a $2 Billion Check for a Chinese Cancer Drug
Pathos AI licensed JSKN016, a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate targeting both TROP2 and HER3, from China's Alphamab for up to $2.09 billion. The drug is in Phase 3 for triple-negative breast cancer. The deal reflects two accelerating trends: Chinese oncology assets flowing West at record pace, and AI-native companies moving from software into drug ownership.
Read more →LEO Pharma Spends $435M on a Drug for a Sunlight Allergy Most People Have Never Heard Of
LEO Pharma licensed dersimelagon from Japan's Tanabe Pharma for up to $435 million. The oral drug treats erythropoietic protoporphyria, a rare genetic condition where minutes of sunlight cause excruciating pain. Phase 3 data showed patients tolerated 23 extra minutes of sun exposure. The deal extends LEO's calculated rare-dermatology shopping spree, targeting diseases too niche for most pharma giants.
Read more →Sanofi Cuts a Third of Blueprint's Workforce One Year After $9.1B Acquisition
Sanofi is laying off 229 Blueprint Medicines employees, roughly one in three workers, barely a year after closing its $9.1 billion deal. The cuts fit a broader pattern: pharma acquirers are integrating faster and more aggressively than ever. Sanofi bought Blueprint for its mastocytosis franchise; keeping the full org chart was never the plan.
Read more →Approvals and Pivots
The FDA Just Approved a Cancer-Killing Herpes Virus. Yes, Really.
Replimune's Tudriqev, an engineered herpes virus paired with nivolumab, earned accelerated FDA approval for melanoma patients who failed standard immunotherapy. About one in four patients responded, with effects lasting a median 14.1 months. It's the first oncolytic virus approved for this specific population, a milestone for a therapeutic category that's been promising (and underdelivering) for 30 years.
Read more →Evaxion Bets Everything on an AI-Designed Brain Cancer Shot
With about $18.4 million in cash and zero revenue, Evaxion is going all-in on EVX-05, an off-the-shelf glioblastoma vaccine targeting ancient viral DNA hidden in tumors. Duke University will run the Phase 1 trial. It's a high-wire act, but glioblastoma's competitive landscape is far thinner than the crowded melanoma vaccine space.
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