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One CRISPR Infusion. 87% Fewer Attacks. The Era of In Vivo Gene Editing Is Here.
Sixty-two percent of patients were completely attack-free after a single IV infusion. Intellia's phase 3 HAELO trial showed its CRISPR therapy, lonvoguran ziclumeran, reduced hereditary angioedema attacks by 87% versus placebo, with no serious side effects reported. Unlike existing treatments that require ongoing pills or injections, this one-time infusion edits genes directly inside the liver. The FDA granted Priority Review, with a decision date set for March 10, 2027. If approved, it would be the first CRISPR therapy that edits genes inside a living person to durably control a disease.
Why it matters: This isn't just a win for rare disease patients. It's proof of concept that in vivo CRISPR editing works as a therapeutic platform, potentially opening the door to one-and-done treatments for dozens of other genetic conditions.
Read more →Deals, Policy & Strategy
Curium Writes an $8 Billion Check for Lantheus, Betting Nuclear Medicine Is Biotech's Next Frontier
A private company most people have never heard of is paying up to $8 billion to acquire Lantheus, the maker of the billion-dollar prostate imaging agent Pylarify. The deal would create a vertically integrated radiopharmaceutical giant controlling everything from isotope production to hospital delivery. With Novartis's Pluvicto proving radioligand therapies work at scale, the race to lock up nuclear medicine infrastructure is officially on.
Read more →U.S. Treasury Drafts Rules That Would Let Most Pharma Deals with China Continue
After $137.7 billion in cross-border out-licensing deals by Chinese biopharma companies last year alone, the U.S. is signaling it won't slam the door on Chinese biotech partnerships. Treasury's draft rules would restrict only pathogen and weapons-related transactions, leaving most pharma licensing untouched. The rules aren't final, but the biotech industry can exhale for now.
Read more →The UK Bets £250 Million on a Biosecurity Campus That Won't Open Until 2038
Britain is pouring £250 million into a massive new health security campus in Essex, aiming to build Europe's largest facility of its kind. The project signals post-Brexit ambitions in life sciences, but the first labs won't open until the mid-2030s. In a global arms race for biotech talent and infrastructure, that's a long time to wait.
Read more →Clinical & Regulatory
FDA Approves the First Drug Combo Built for Breast Cancers That Learned to Dodge Hormone Therapy
Up to 40% of metastatic ER-positive breast cancer patients carry ESR1 mutations that make standard hormone treatments useless. Lilly's imlunestrant plus abemaciclib is now FDA-approved specifically for those tumors, nearly doubling progression-free survival to 11.1 months in trials. It's precision oncology working in practice, not just on a conference slide.
Read more →The Obesity Arms Race
Lilly Makes All Zepbound Doses Available Through LillyDirect, and the GLP-1 Price War Escalates
All six Zepbound doses are now available as single-dose vials through LillyDirect, starting at $299 per month for the lowest dose and up to $449 per month for higher doses, roughly $637 less than the pen's list price. Novo Nordisk responded by cutting Wegovy to $349 and launching an oral version at $149. For patients paying out of pocket, the competition is finally working in their favor.
Read more →A Cannabis Compound Doubled Semaglutide's Weight Loss in Mice (Yes, Really)
Artelo Biosciences' cannabinoid drug ART27.13, originally designed to help cancer patients gain weight, produced roughly 40% body weight loss when combined with semaglutide in obese mice. That's double what either drug did alone, and 80% of the weight lost in ART27.13-treated groups was fat. It's mouse data from a $2 million market cap company, so temper expectations accordingly.
Read more →AI & Drug Discovery
Anthropic Built a Wet Lab, and That Changes the AI-in-Pharma Calculus
The company behind Claude quietly opened a physical biology lab in the Bay Area, crossing a line most AI companies never do. Anthropic says it's not for drug discovery (yet), but with Novo Nordisk, BMS, and Genmab already partnered, the lab creates a closed loop where AI designs experiments and real-world results make the models smarter. Pure-software AI drug discovery startups should be nervous.
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