Past Issues
See what you've been missing. Browse every issue of our free, daily briefing.
Roche just beat both KRAS kings in the first-ever head-to-head lung cancer trial
Roche ran something nobody had tried before: a Phase 3 trial pitting its next-gen KRAS inhibitor directly against both approved rivals. It won on the two endpoints that matter most. Meanwhile, the FDA is about to let a panel of peptide sellers vote on whether their own products should be legal, and two of Wall Street's biggest names just wrote a billion-dollar check to a single biotech.
Medicare will now pay for weight-loss drugs at $50/month. Here's the catch.
Medicare just blew past a 23-year ban on covering weight-loss drugs, launching a pilot that gives seniors Wegovy and Zepbound for $50 a month. Meanwhile, the FDA had one of its busiest weeks in memory: the first oral carbapenem, gene therapy for toddlers, and a cell therapy that could reinvent bone marrow transplants. Let's get into it.
China just approved a cancer therapy that was never supposed to work
A solid tumor just got treated with CAR-T cell therapy for the first time in history, and the approval didn't come from the FDA. Meanwhile, Europe pulled the plug on an Amgen drug over fabricated trial data, Congress is investigating Big Pharma's Chinese lab work, and the FDA is trying to rebuild itself after gutting its own workforce.
9 FDA panelists, 0 objections: mRNA's flu shot moment just arrived
An FDA panel just gave Moderna's flu vaccine a perfect score, and the backstory involves a rejected application, a political firestorm, and a dramatic reversal. Meanwhile, a biotech nobody heard of just shattered the biggest biotech IPO record, and someone wrote an $11.3 billion check for the picks and shovels of cell therapy.
Novo's next-gen obesity drug just lost to Zepbound. The stock cratered 15%.
Novo Nordisk bet its future on CagriSema beating Zepbound in a head-to-head trial. It didn't even come close to a tie. Meanwhile, billion-dollar deals are reshaping prostate cancer and blood cancer, Sarepta is fighting for survival, and Lilly is quietly winning a price war.
The first China-born anesthetic just cleared the FDA. Operating rooms will never be the same.
A Chinese drugmaker just did something no one in the industry expected: got the FDA to approve an original anesthetic for American operating rooms. Meanwhile, Biogen spent $5.6 billion on Apellis and immediately torched most of the science. It's a day of firsts, farewells, and some truly creative accounting.
The FDA approved a thyroid eye drug 4 days early. Analysts say it's still underpriced.
A rare early FDA approval, the first-ever muscle gain in a muscular dystrophy trial, and a $5.6 billion acquisition that got stripped for parts before the ink dried. Today's issue covers a biotech industry that's simultaneously building breakthroughs and dismantling them.
A daily pill just doubled survival in pancreatic cancer. ASCO gave it 42 seconds.
An ASCO audience stood and cheered for 42 straight seconds after seeing a single survival curve from a pancreatic cancer trial. Meanwhile, the White House is using tariff threats to rewrite drug pricing, and Gilead can't stop shopping: $5 billion for a German ADC startup, $45 million for a drug that hasn't touched a patient.
Merck KGaA just spent $11B on a company most people have never heard of
A quiet arms race in lab tools just got loud, a single CRISPR injection is silencing a disease for good, and pig kidneys keep getting closer to solving the organ crisis. Today's issue is stacked with deals, data, and a few FDA moves that could reshape how medicine gets made, tested, and delivered.
The first CAR-T for solid tumors is here, and it didn't come from the West
A decade-long wall in cancer therapy just cracked: the world's first CAR-T approval for solid tumors landed in China, not the U.S. Meanwhile, Big Pharma went on a $22 billion shopping spree in a single week, and a gene-editing pioneer that once commanded billions in partnerships got sold for parts.
For the first time ever, a drug fights childhood diabetes itself, not just its symptoms
The FDA just cracked open a century-old treatment paradigm for type 1 diabetes, while Pfizer's $43 billion Seagen bet produced its first big flop. Meanwhile, the agency is quietly beta-testing a new operating system for how it watches clinical trials unfold. Big day.
Novo's Lilly-killer just lost the fight. Billions in market cap, gone.
Novo Nordisk built its next-gen obesity drug to dethrone Eli Lilly's tirzepatide. It couldn't even prove it was "basically just as good." That head-to-head loss, plus a $10.9 billion acquisition, an LSD pill posting jaw-dropping depression data, and a record-breaking M&A spree make this one of the most consequential days in biotech this year.
This cancer drug plays dead in your bloodstream (then wakes up at the tumor)
A $1.7 billion deal just validated one of the cleverest drug designs in oncology: a cancer therapy with molecular safety pins that only come off inside the tumor. Meanwhile, the most watched gene therapy in rare disease is fighting for survival after a Phase III miss and 500 layoffs.
Hackers lived inside Novo Nordisk for two months. Then they got greedy.
A hacking group says it stole Novo Nordisk's AI models, drug formulas, and clinical trial data, then demanded $25 million. The world's biggest pharma company refused to pay. Meanwhile, the obesity drug wars are escalating on three continents, and pharma just pledged $300 billion to avoid a single tax.
The first drug that destroys its target just got FDA approval
A drug class that spent 25 years in scientific purgatory just landed on a prescription bottle, and the ripple effects will reshape how the entire industry designs medicines. Meanwhile, a personalized cancer vaccine held strong for five full years, a gene-editing shot matched a lifetime of cholesterol pills, and a blockbuster blood test hit a wall it didn't see coming.
GSK just spent $10.6B to un-quit cancer
GSK abandoned oncology five years ago. Now it's writing one of the biggest checks in cancer M&A history to get back in, with two FDA-reviewed lung cancer drugs and a patent cliff breathing down its neck. Meanwhile, scientists finally cracked one of neuroscience's hardest problems, an entire antibiotic class escaped the IV pole, and the M&A feeding frenzy rolled on.
The FDA said no, then yes, then no, then yes to this gene therapy
The FDA reversed itself twice in 18 months on a Huntington's gene therapy, and the final answer could reshape the approval bar for every brain disease drug in the pipeline. Meanwhile, BioNTech swallowed its biggest mRNA rival, Medicare's "temporary" weight-loss drug benefit looks permanent, and a biotech turned its failed trial into an AI goldmine.
Colorado can now buy drugs from Canada. Good luck actually getting them.
The FDA just handed Colorado a historic permission slip to import prescription drugs from Canada, but the real obstacles are only beginning. Meanwhile, billions of dollars are flying in autoimmune M&A, a CRISPR therapy is rewriting the HAE playbook, and Medicare wants to close a loophole worth tens of billions.
A tiny protein just cost Gilead $7.8 billion (and might be worth every penny)
Gilead wrote a massive check for a synthetic protein the size of a molecule's fingernail, and the clinical data backing the deal is borderline absurd. Meanwhile, a pill nearly doubled survival in pancreatic cancer, Biogen went shopping for eyeballs, and a blood thinner finally figured out how to stop causing bleeding.
Prostate cancer just got its first precision therapy. Breast cancer did this 25 years ago.
The FDA just handed prostate cancer something breast cancer has had for a generation: a targeted drug matched to a specific genetic defect. Meanwhile, Lilly's $2.3 billion gamble on an untested blood cancer drug is already showing signs of life, and the obesity drug wars just got a whole lot clearer after a blockbuster week at ADA 2026.
Get tomorrow's biotech intelligence before your competitors.
Join thousands of biotech professionals who start their day with our free, daily briefing.