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$11.3 Billion for the Company That Sells Picks and Shovels to Drug Makers
Merck KGaA is paying $11.3 billion in cash for Bio-Techne, a Minneapolis-based maker of research-grade proteins and antibodies, at a 36% premium. It's the German pharma giant's largest acquisition in over a decade, and the target isn't a drugmaker; it's the supplier scientists can't live without. Bio-Techne pulled in $1.22 billion in revenue last fiscal year, with 72% coming from its Protein Sciences segment that is deeply embedded in lab workflows. The deal values Bio-Techne at roughly 25x estimated 2027 EBITDA, a rich price for a tools company growing at 5%.
Why it matters: With life sciences M&A hitting $240 billion in 2025 and consolidation accelerating across the tools sector, this deal signals that the companies supplying the infrastructure of drug discovery are now as strategically valuable as the companies making the drugs themselves.
Read more →Clinical and Regulatory
Regeneron's Answer to the Muscle Problem With Ozempic
Up to 40% of weight lost on GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide comes from lean mass, not fat. Regeneron's trevogrumab cut that muscle loss roughly in half in a Phase 2 trial, preserving about 70% of thigh muscle volume without reducing total weight loss. The drug blocks myostatin, a protein that limits muscle growth. Analysts project muscle-sparing obesity therapies could reach $30 billion in annual sales by 2035.
Read more →The Blood Cancer Drug That Just Earned a Promotion to First-Line
Pirtobrutinib (Jaypirca) landed FDA approval for previously untreated CLL/SLL with a hazard ratio of 0.199, meaning patients were roughly five times less likely to see disease progression versus chemo. It's the first non-covalent BTK inhibitor cleared for frontline use, giving Eli Lilly a mechanistically unique entry into a $13 billion-plus market.
Read more →A Heart Valve That Grows Up With Your Kid
Edwards Lifesciences won FDA approval for the AUTUS valve, the first pediatric surgical heart valve that can be expanded via catheter as a child grows. It's also the first approved valve ever to use synthetic polymeric leaflets instead of animal tissue. In a 62-patient study, 100% of patients were free of device-related complications at 30 days, with zero reinterventions through six months.
Read more →Funding and Financings
ADARx Kicked Down the IPO Door With $446 Million
ADARx Pharmaceuticals priced its upsized IPO at $17 per share (top of range), raising $446 million in one of the year's largest biotech debuts. The RNA therapeutics company claims its delivery platforms can send drugs to fat, brain, heart, and eye tissue, not just the liver. AbbVie validated the bet with a concurrent private placement, taking a 4.9% stake.
Read more →An AI Drug Discovery Company Just Raised $400 Million. Then the Stock Dipped.
Generate Biomedicines, a Flagship Pioneering-backed company that uses AI to design proteins from scratch, priced 25 million shares at $16 each. The stock closed 17% below its intraday high on day one. Its lead program, an AI-designed antibody for severe asthma, is already in Phase 3, and it has partnerships with Amgen and Novartis.
Read more →Science and Discovery
A New Way to Talk to Genes Just Worked in Humans for the First Time
Ractigen Therapeutics presented the first human proof-of-mechanism for RNA activation, a technology that turns genes ON instead of silencing them. In boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, their drug RAG-18 boosted utrophin production in skeletal muscle with zero serious adverse events. Because it targets a backup gene rather than the broken one, the approach could work regardless of mutation type.
Read more →Xaira Says Its AI Can Design Clinic-Ready Antibodies in Seven Weeks
Backed by over $1 billion and led by Genentech's former chief scientist, Xaira Therapeutics unveiled X-Design, a platform it claims produces antibodies optimized for manufacturing, immune tolerance, and stability from the start. The company disclosed it created a cancer drug candidate in just seven weeks, a process that traditionally takes a year or more.
Read more →Industry and Policy
Bayer Bets $2.2 Billion That Ohio Is Pharma's Future
Bayer announced a $2.2 billion investment in a new pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in New Albany, Ohio, its first in North America. The facility won't produce anything until 2031, but it joins a reshoring wave that's seen global pharma commit between $350 billion and $500 billion in U.S. manufacturing pledges. The campus will focus on oncology, cardiovascular, and renal drugs.
Read more →Florida Sues Pfizer Over COVID Vaccine Marketing
Florida's Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit against Pfizer and CEO Albert Bourla, alleging the company misled consumers about vaccine safety and transmission prevention. By framing it as consumer fraud rather than product liability, Florida is attempting to sidestep the federal PREP Act immunity that has blocked most vaccine injury claims. Pfizer called the case meritless.
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