Original reporting and analysis on the stories shaping biotech.
Anthropic's Claude autonomously designed 1,320 protein binders across 15 biological targets, and independent labs confirmed 354 of them actually worked. The hit rates are blowing past traditional benchmarks, and the implications for early drug discovery are hard to ignore.
Eli Lilly is spending $2.88 billion to acquire Merida Biosciences and its technology that selectively destroys disease-causing antibodies while leaving the rest of your immune system alone. It's the company's biggest bet yet that autoimmune disease will be its next blockbuster franchise.
For nearly 30 years, patients with essential thrombocythemia had zero new FDA-approved treatments. PharmaEssentia's BESREMi just broke that streak with trial results that crushed the competition seven to one.
Ascendis Pharma and BioMarin just ended an 18-month patent war spanning three continents with a royalty deal that has BioMarin collecting 20% of YUVIWEL's U.S. sales. The settlement removes a major legal cloud, but the competitive chess match in achondroplasia is just getting started.
Tenax Therapeutics' Phase 3 trial for TNX-103 flopped in the overall population, the stock crashed 90%, and the story should have ended there. But a subgroup of sicker patients told a very different tale at ESC Congress 2026.
Heart failure gene therapy has been in the penalty box since Celladon's spectacular CUPID2 failure nearly a decade ago. AskBio just fully enrolled one of the largest gene therapy trials ever run in heart failure, with over 170 patients and a data readout looming in early 2027.
Sarepta's gene therapy Elevidys just got the FDA's most severe safety warning for fatal liver failure, while the company cuts 36% of its workforce. A near-billion-dollar franchise is suddenly fighting for survival, and it raises hard questions about gene therapy's commercial future.
AusperBio just raised $120 million to push its hepatitis B drug into Phase 3, backed by Phase 2 data showing a 30% functional cure rate in a disease where the current standard barely hits 5% after a decade. In a field littered with clinical failures, someone is making a very big bet.
BioXcel Therapeutics went bankrupt on a Wednesday. By Thursday, Teva had a $145 million deal on the table for its brain drug. Here's why the pharma giant sees gold in the wreckage of a company that made less revenue than a Chick-fil-A.
The FDA just approved the first-ever targeted pill for dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks muscles and skin. Roivant's factory-style drug development model notched another win, but Wall Street wants to see receipts before celebrating.
Bristol Myers Squibb just dropped five years of follow-up data for Camzyos at ESC Congress 2026, and the results held up across the board. Nearly every patient hit their target, most became asymptomatic, and a billion-dollar drug just got a lot harder to argue against.
Bayer's PET tracer nailed 94% sensitivity in a Phase 3 trial for cardiac amyloidosis, a disease that's misdiagnosed more often than it's caught. If approved, it could unlock a massive underdiagnosed patient pool that every major ATTR drug company is desperate to find.
Stargardt disease has robbed young people of their vision for decades with zero approved treatments. Belite Bio's tinlarebant just got FDA Priority Review, and a decision date of February 2027 could mark a rare disease milestone that's been a lifetime coming.
BioXcel Therapeutics filed for bankruptcy with a drug that made just $600K last year. Teva swooped in with a $57.5 million stalking horse bid, betting it can turn a failed launch into a CNS winner. It's a masterclass in distressed biotech deal-making.
The FDA just gave Mounjaro a cardiovascular risk-reduction label, making it the first dual GIP/GLP-1 drug cleared to protect hearts. Eli Lilly just closed the biggest gap between tirzepatide and Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, and the implications for the $50 billion incretin market are enormous.
AstraZeneca's massive ATTR cardiomyopathy trial just failed, and it's not just one drug's problem. The results are raising billion-dollar questions about whether an entire class of RNA silencing drugs can compete with existing heart therapies.
The FDA just approved the first hepcidin mimetic for polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer where the main treatment has been... draining your blood. Mimrylo works through an entirely new mechanism, and its Phase 3 data might make phlebotomy a thing of the past for thousands of patients.
BioNTech and Genentech killed a personalized cancer vaccine trial after more patients died in the treatment arm than the control group. It's a gut punch for the mRNA-fights-cancer thesis, and it raises uncomfortable questions about which tumors this technology can actually beat.
An Oxford study found that GSK's Shingrix shingles vaccine is linked to 9% lower cardiovascular burden than the older Zostavax. A shingles shot that might also protect your heart? The evidence is intriguing, the caveats are real, and the implications could be enormous.
Cytokinetics' aficamten just proved it works in non-obstructive HCM, a condition affecting hundreds of thousands of patients with zero approved targeted therapies. The ACACIA-HCM trial hit both primary endpoints, and the NEJM published the data the same day it was presented at ESC 2026.
CRISPR Therapeutics just showed that a single IV infusion can slash cholesterol and triglycerides for at least a year by permanently editing a gene in liver cells. The one-year Phase 1a data for CTX310 are stunning, but the jump from 15 patients to the real world is where things get interesting.
Moderna raised $2.6 billion in zero-interest convertible debt to fund its aggressive pivot from COVID vaccines to cancer. With Phase 3 data proving its personalized mRNA cancer vaccine works in melanoma, the company is betting its future on oncology.
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