Original reporting and analysis on the stories shaping biotech.
Gilead just killed the lead drug from its $405 million MiroBio acquisition, adding to a growing list of pricey deals that haven't delivered. As the company books $11.5 billion in new deal charges this year, investors are asking an uncomfortable question: is Gilead getting worse at shopping?
Biopharma companies have pledged a jaw-dropping $292 billion to build drug factories in the U.S. since January. But between 100% tariffs, five-year construction timelines, and a severe talent shortage, the gap between promise and production is wider than anyone wants to admit.
Curium Pharma just slid a $7 billion offer across the table to Lantheus Holdings, the company behind prostate cancer imaging blockbuster Pylarify. If the deal goes through, it would create a global radiopharmaceutical powerhouse and mark one of the biggest PE-backed moves into oncology infrastructure ever.
BMS's CELMoD drug mezigdomide just delivered a major Phase 3 win in multiple myeloma, providing the strongest clinical validation yet for the targeted protein degradation drug class. The implications stretch far beyond one company and one cancer.
A new startup thinks the real reason 94% of brain drugs fail isn't bad science; it's bad trial infrastructure. Kordata Dynamics just emerged from stealth with an AI platform built specifically for neural data, and it's starting in the last place you'd expect.
The FDA is piloting one-day factory inspections powered by AI risk analytics, replacing the traditional week-long deep dive for low-risk facilities. With 2,000 firms uninspected since before the pandemic, the agency is betting that algorithms can tell it where to look and where to move on.
The FDA's vaccine advisory committee met to pick the COVID-19 strain for 2026–2027 shots, with a new recombinant variant called XFG emerging as the leading candidate. But the bigger story might be who's still showing up to get vaccinated at all.
A small Korean biotech just dropped MASH liver disease data that looks competitive with Novo Nordisk's blockbuster semaglutide. The catch? Only 35 patients were in the trial, and the competition is about to get fierce.
GSK's bepirovirsen just hit its primary endpoint in two massive Phase 3 trials, functionally curing roughly one in five chronic hepatitis B patients after just six months of treatment. In a disease affecting 254 million people with zero approved cures, that's a very big deal.
The FDA just approved Decnupaz, a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate for one of the rarest and deadliest blood cancers in existence. For the few hundred Americans diagnosed with BPDCN each year, it doubles the number of targeted therapies available overnight.
AstraZeneca's breast cancer drug camizestrant showed strong trial results, but an FDA advisory panel voted 6-3 against it, and now the agency wants more data before making a call. What happens next could reshape how blood tests guide cancer treatment decisions.
Apogee Therapeutics locked down $1.3 billion from Blackstone without selling a single share, one of the largest non-dilutive deals a pre-approval biotech has ever pulled off. The bet: an eczema drug that could turn 26 annual injections into just a handful.
The FDA just gutted the most frustrating parts of iPLEDGE, the 21-year-old bureaucratic gauntlet standing between acne patients and their isotretinoin prescriptions. The 19-day lockout is dead, home pregnancy tests are in, and about a million patients per year are about to breathe easier.
Olympus, the company behind 70% of the world's GI endoscopes, just dropped $270 million on a tiny Israeli startup that makes biodegradable balloons for cancer treatment. The deal signals a bold pivot from finding tumors to helping treat them.
The team behind MyoKardia's $13.1 billion sale to Bristol Myers Squibb just filed for an IPO under ticker KARD, armed with three late-stage heart drugs and over half a billion in private funding. In a 2026 IPO market dominated by oncology, Kardigan is making a contrarian bet on cardiovascular disease.
Congress wants to expand a national security law to cover biotech, potentially disrupting a $137 billion China-to-U.S. licensing boom. The COINS Act could force every cross-border deal through a government screening process, and Big Pharma's favorite pipeline is in the crosshairs.
KRAS inhibitors were supposed to revolutionize cancer treatment, but tumors keep finding workarounds. Kura Oncology just dropped early clinical data on a companion drug designed to shut down cancer's favorite escape route, and the implications could reshape one of oncology's most competitive markets.
The FDA says a nationwide shortage of basic neurosurgical sponges and patties will last through the end of 2026, after Medline recalled its entire neuro sponge line over bacterial toxin contamination. Hospitals are now rationing supplies for brain surgery.
Eli Lilly is selling Zepbound's highest doses in cheaper vials at $449/month, roughly 60% below pen prices. It looks like a price cut, but Wall Street says it's actually a volume play that won't hurt Lilly's bottom line.
CellCentric just closed a $220 million Series D, the largest private biotech financing in Europe this year, to push its first-in-class oral cancer drug toward approval. In a market where investors have been stingy with late-stage oncology bets, this oversubscribed round tells a bigger story about what it takes to get funded in 2026.
Eli Lilly dropped up to $3.8 billion to acquire three vaccine companies in a single day, targeting everything from shingles to Epstein-Barr virus. It's the biggest bet on vaccines by a non-vaccine company in years, and it signals a radical strategic shift.
The FDA launched an AI-powered pilot that compresses traditional week-long factory inspections into a single day. With nearly 2,000 facilities overdue for routine visits and inspector vacancies at four times pre-pandemic levels, the algorithm is now deciding who gets the speed run and who gets the deep dive.
Join thousands of biotech professionals who start their day with our free, daily briefing.