Original reporting and analysis on the stories shaping biotech.
Fulcrum Therapeutics' sickle cell drug showed real promise, but the FDA shut it down over cancer fears tied to an entire drug class. The stock cratered 50%, the company's only clinical program vanished, and the implications stretch far beyond one biotech.
UCB swooped in with $2 billion in cash to snag Candid Therapeutics, killing the company's planned IPO in the process. The deal spotlights big pharma's growing obsession with T-cell engagers for autoimmune disease and signals that 2026's M&A frenzy is just getting started.
Revolution Medicines' daraxonrasib just doubled overall survival in metastatic pancreatic cancer, shattering a barrier that's stood for decades. Now the FDA has cleared an early access program before the drug is even approved, and Wall Street thinks this could be a $10 billion opportunity.
A first-in-class bispecific antibody just cut the risk of death by 34% in lung cancer, outperforming a modern immunotherapy combo. The catch? The entire trial was run in China, and Wall Street wanted more.
Eli Lilly just licensed a long-acting GLP-2 drug from South Korea's Hanmi Pharma in a deal worth up to $1.26 billion. The target: a rare gut disease where the only approved treatment demands a daily injection, and the promise of replacing it with one shot per month.
BioNTech is shutting down four manufacturing sites, cutting 22% of its workforce, and handing all COVID vaccine production to Pfizer. The reason? A massive, €17.4-billion-funded bet that its future lies in cancer, not pandemics.
Eli Lilly just committed up to $3 billion to partner with a Chinese drugmaker most Western investors have never heard of. The deal covers five undisclosed drug programs, and the secrecy is almost as interesting as the price tag.
Merck's antibody-drug conjugate sac-TMT just became the first ADC to beat chemotherapy on both overall survival and progression-free survival in advanced endometrial cancer. For patients who'd exhausted chemo and immunotherapy, this Phase 3 win could rewrite the treatment playbook.
ASCO 2026 kicked off with Bristol Myers Squibb unveiling pivotal myeloma data for its next-gen CELMoD drug and Pfizer flexing seven years of stunning lung cancer results. Opening day also delivered brain radiation breakthroughs and the first randomized multicancer blood test data.
Big pharma is pouring over $10 billion into AI partnerships to fix its brutal R&D economics, and early clinical data shows AI-designed drugs succeeding at nearly double the historical rate. But the ultimate test (a fully AI-discovered, FDA-approved drug) still hasn't happened.
AACR 2026 delivered three standout lung cancer datasets: Merck's new two-in-one antibody, a rescue drug for patients who've exhausted all options, and a pill keeping cancer at bay for over four years. The NSCLC landscape just got a whole lot more competitive.
BioNTech/BMS and Pfizer are building nearly identical lung cancer drugs but just made opposite bets on how to prove they work. Their ASCO 2026 split on trial endpoints could reshape how the next generation of cancer therapies reaches patients.
Kelonia's in vivo CAR-T therapy skips the factory entirely, reprogramming your immune cells inside your body. At ASCO 2026, all six patients in the trial hit the deepest possible cancer response, and analysts are calling the data 'nutty' in the best way possible.
Biopharma's confidence index just hit 96 out of 100, fueled by record M&A and a dealmaking frenzy that could top $170 billion this year. But underneath the optimism, a growing chasm between large pharma's steady hiring and small biotech's skeleton crews tells a very different story.
Biotech startups are dodging down rounds by reopening old funding rounds instead of raising new ones. It's clever financial engineering, but the strategy reveals just how much stress still lurks beneath the surface of private biotech markets.
The FDA keeps approving rare disease drugs at a record pace, but surprise rejections, reversed decisions, and canceled meetings are rattling the companies and investors who make those treatments possible. The result: a funding crisis hiding inside a regulatory one.
The FDA just approved the first oral antiviral that prevents COVID after exposure, not just treats it. Shionogi's Xocova cut symptomatic infection by 67% in a pivotal trial, filling a gap that's been wide open since Omicron killed off the antibody options.
Gilead paid $3.15 billion upfront for Tubulis before anyone outside the company saw the ovarian cancer data. At ASCO 2026, TUB-040 finally showed its cards: a 61% response rate and 11-month progression-free survival that could reshape the ADC landscape.
The inventor of blockbuster CAR-T therapy Carvykti just launched a new company that ditches gene editing entirely. Wondercel Therapeutics debuted early clinical data at ASCO 2026, and the results are equal parts promising and sobering.
Two biotechs raised $556 million in a single day on the Nasdaq, with both deals upsized due to overwhelming demand. Hemab and Seaport's dual IPOs are the strongest signal yet that biotech's long IPO freeze is finally thawing.
Bristol Myers Squibb is betting up to $15.2 billion on 13 preclinical drugs from China's Hengrui Medicine, none of which have been tested in humans. It's one of the largest China-originated pharma deals ever, and it's landing right in the middle of a geopolitical minefield.
AstraZeneca is pushing two drugs toward approval despite Phase 3 failures, betting that subgroup data and supplemental analyses can overcome the biggest hurdle in drug development. The outcome could redefine what "enough evidence" means for the entire industry.
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