Original reporting and analysis on the stories shaping biotech.
Eli Lilly just dropped up to $2.875 billion on a startup whose lead drug hasn't even finished Phase 1 testing. The target: a precision platform that hunts down disease-causing antibodies one by one. It's either the smartest bet in autoimmune disease or the most expensive appetizer in pharma history.
A Shanghai biotech just reported 100% remission rates in sickle cell and β-thalassemia patients across four continents, using a gene editor that doesn't cut DNA. The results could reshape the competition with first-generation CRISPR therapies.
Novo Nordisk's STEP Young trial showed 40% of children as young as six were no longer classified as obese after 68 weeks on semaglutide, while zero on placebo crossed that line. The results are forcing a reckoning over GLP-1 drugs in elementary schoolers, and the insurance fights haven't even started yet.
The FDA just greenlit updated COVID-19 vaccines targeting a variant called XFG from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax-Sanofi. The science looks solid, but last season's dismal uptake numbers raise a bigger question: does anyone still care enough to get the shot?
Pfizer just handed a shelved Seagen cancer drug to a company that was a shell corp three years ago. The deal starts at $12 million but could top $1 billion, and the question everyone's asking is whether Medicus Pharma can actually pull it off.
AbbVie's experimental myeloma drug etentamig nearly doubled response rates compared to standard treatments in heavily pretreated patients. The Phase 3 results could reshape how doctors sequence therapies in one of blood cancer's toughest-to-treat populations.
The FDA just approved a weekly injection that could replace regular blood-draining procedures for patients with a rare blood cancer. Rusfertide's Phase 3 data crushed placebo, and the broad label has analysts buzzing about Protagonist Therapeutics' peptide platform.
Novo Nordisk just axed its $1.3 billion chronic kidney disease program after the drug failed in a Phase 3 trial. Combined with the ziltivekimab flop weeks earlier, the company's attempts to build beyond obesity and diabetes are looking increasingly shaky.
Novo Nordisk killed two cardiovascular trials of ziltivekimab after an independent committee said they were unlikely to succeed. The $2.1 billion Corvidia acquisition now looks like one of the most expensive dead ends in recent pharma history, and it leaves Novo scrambling to diversify beyond its GLP-1 empire.
Novartis and Ionis' pelacarsen obliterated Lp(a) levels in over 8,000 patients but completely failed to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The result doesn't just sink one drug; it threatens the entire billion-dollar thesis that lowering this genetic risk factor can save lives.
Celiac disease affects 2 million Americans, and the only treatment is avoiding gluten forever. Teva just posted Phase 2 data showing its antibody TEV-408 can cut gluten-induced gut damage roughly in half, a first for a field with zero approved targeted therapies.
Invivyd just installed its board chairman as CEO weeks before its biggest clinical data readout ever. The move could signal supreme confidence in the results ahead, or something much more complicated. Either way, the next few weeks will tell the whole story.
Novartis is cutting 130 jobs and closing a Basel biologics site, but the real story is much bigger. The pharma giant is part of an industry-wide manufacturing reshuffling that's rewriting the map of where drugs get made.
United Therapeutics' Tyvaso, already approved for pulmonary hypertension, just aced two Phase 3 trials in a completely different disease: the deadly lung-scarring condition IPF. The results are reshaping a competitive landscape that patients desperately need shaken up.
Eli Lilly is rolling out cheaper single-dose vials of Zepbound's highest doses, slashing monthly costs by up to $587 compared to the autoinjector pen. It's a calculated move in an increasingly fierce GLP-1 pricing war, and it could reshape who gets access to the biggest blockbuster in pharma.
Sangamo Therapeutics, once a gene therapy pioneer, is being carved up in bankruptcy court. PTC Therapeutics is paying $111 million for its nearly FDA-ready Fabry disease gene therapy while Eli Lilly grabbed the gene-editing toolbox for $50 million. It's a cautionary tale about what happens when great science meets terrible economics.
Two major pharma companies paused autoimmune CAR-T programs within days of each other, raising uncomfortable questions about whether the hottest new use for cell therapy has a class-wide safety problem. The early honeymoon data might have been too good to last.
Novartis's pelacarsen crushed Lp(a) levels by 80% in over 8,000 patients, but heart attacks and strokes kept happening anyway. The landmark Lp(a)HORIZON trial failure threatens not just one drug, but the entire genetic thesis behind a multi-billion-dollar drug class.
Pfizer just recalled the only FDA-approved drug that can treat syphilis in pregnant women and protect their babies. With congenital syphilis cases up 700% since 2015 and supply already strained for years, the timing couldn't be worse.
A 140-year-old private Italian pharma just dropped €726 million on a Chinese GLP-1 drug most people have never heard of. The deal reveals how far outside the usual suspects the obesity gold rush is reaching.
Sarepta added a black box warning to its only-in-class Duchenne gene therapy and laid off 36% of its workforce on the same day. The stock rallied 33%. Welcome to biotech logic.
The FDA just approved a breast cancer drug with a twist: treatment decisions are driven by a blood test, not a scan. AstraZeneca's camizestrant could rewrite the rules of precision oncology, but it almost didn't survive a brutal advisory committee vote.
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