Original reporting and analysis on the stories shaping biotech.
The NIH faces a historic 39.3% budget cut that would slash funding to levels not seen since 2003. A Senate hearing just examined what that means for the research pipeline that feeds every corner of the biotech industry.
Supernus and Indivior are merging into a $2.2 billion CNS and addiction powerhouse, combining ADHD drugs with the dominant opioid treatment franchise. It's specialty pharma's latest bet that brain disorders and addiction belong under one roof.
AstraZeneca and Ionis' Wainua crushed it in nerve disease, so everyone expected it to dominate in heart failure caused by the same rogue protein. A 1,432-patient Phase 3 trial just proved that biology doesn't work that way.
AstraZeneca and Ionis just watched $27 billion in market value evaporate after their heart disease drug flopped in Phase 3. But the real story isn't about the drug; it's about the trial design that may have doomed it from the start.
Johnson & Johnson locked in an exclusive option to buy Sail Biomedicines for $2.58 billion, betting that CAR-T therapy can be turned from a complex cell surgery into a simple IV drip. The catch? Sail's lead program hasn't entered a single clinical trial yet.
AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb are reportedly in talks to create a $400 billion pharma colossus. Wall Street's reaction? AstraZeneca's stock cratered 7.8% and analysts called themselves "perplexed." Here's why the biggest pharma deal in history might also be the worst idea.
Altimmune's pemvidutide, a weight-loss drug designed for obesity and liver disease, just hit every major endpoint in a Phase 2 alcohol addiction trial. The results suggest GLP-1 drugs may reshape addiction medicine, and the FDA is paying attention.
The FDA is expected to rule on Moderna's mRNA flu vaccine on August 5, a decision that could mark the first time mRNA technology cracks the seasonal flu market. After a bumpy regulatory road, a unanimous advisory committee vote, and 70 years of egg-based dominance, the stakes couldn't be higher.
ARPA-H is spending $160 million to turn custom gene-editing miracles into a repeatable playbook for rare childhood diseases. Seven teams, five years, and a mandate to start clinical trials by year three. The science works; now the plumbing has to catch up.
The FDA rejected Replimune's melanoma therapy RP1 for the third time, citing the same study design flaws it's flagged since 2021. Shares crashed 58% after hours as analysts slashed targets to as low as $1, and the oncolytic virus field's biggest bet is now on life support.
The FDA is investigating three deaths from acute liver failure linked to Sarepta's Elevidys gene therapy and related products. The fallout includes a boxed warning, halted shipments, and hard questions about whether high-dose gene therapy can ever be safe enough for the patients who need it most.
The FDA just finalized three guidances that could reshape who gets into cancer clinical trials. Arbitrary exclusions around performance status, lab values, and washout periods are officially on notice, and biotech companies need to pay attention.
Viridian Therapeutics just broke Amgen's six-year stranglehold on thyroid eye disease with the FDA approval of Lumvoa, the first competitor to the $1.9 billion Tepezza franchise. The label is broader, the treatment is shorter, and Wall Street thinks the stock has 80% upside if the launch delivers.
Definium Therapeutics' LSD-derived pill crushed its Phase 3 depression trial so convincingly that Wall Street analysts called the results 'profound.' One dose beat the effect size of every approved antidepressant. The psychedelic psychiatry era just got very real.
Eli Lilly just expanded a partnership with Shanghai-based Abbisko Therapeutics to the tune of $1.9 billion in potential payments, doubling down on Chinese oncology innovation while Congress tries to decouple U.S. and Chinese biotech. The deal reveals just how commercially irresistible China's drug discovery engine remains for Big Pharma.
The FDA rejected Lantheus' cancer imaging kit, but not because it doesn't work. The product's clinical data was spotless; a third-party factory that couldn't pass inspection tanked the whole application. It's a cautionary tale for the booming radiopharmaceutical sector.
The Ebola strain spreading across Central Africa isn't the one we built vaccines for. With over 2,400 cases and no approved treatments, the U.S. just launched a crash vaccine program for a virus that's been hiding in plain sight since 2007.
HHS just dropped Operation TrialBlazer, a plan to cut six to twelve months off Phase 1 clinical trial timelines. For cash-strapped small biotechs, this isn't just regulatory housekeeping; it could be the difference between running out of money and getting a drug into humans.
The FDA launched a pilot to monitor clinical trial data as it happens, streaming safety and efficacy signals in real time via AI and cloud platforms. The agency explicitly tied the move to staying competitive with China's rapidly modernizing drug approval system.
A tiny biotech called Oruka just posted psoriasis clearance rates that numerically beat AbbVie's $17.6 billion juggernaut Skyrizi, and it might only need one shot a year. Wall Street is losing its mind.
Intellia's single-dose CRISPR therapy slashed HAE attacks by 87% in Phase 3, with zero serious side effects. Now the company is racing toward what could be the first FDA approval for a gene-editing treatment that works directly inside the body.
Ipsen dropped roughly $2.5 billion in potential deal value across two acquisitions in five days, snapping up a first-in-class antibody for a transplant virus with zero approved treatments. The French pharma company is betting big that rare disease is its future, and it's not waiting around to prove it.
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