Original reporting and analysis on the stories shaping biotech.
Merck and Daiichi Sankyo just pulled their second FDA application under a $22 billion cancer partnership, this time for a lung cancer drug whose Phase 2 data didn't impress regulators. Two strikes under one mega-deal is raising uncomfortable questions about the future of oncology's biggest collaboration.
AbbVie just signed a multi-year AI drug discovery deal with Nvidia-backed Iambic Therapeutics, and the timing (same day as Iambic's IPO filing) says everything. Here's why Big Pharma's AI bets are no longer experiments.
A lawsuit in New York alleges a former Hengrui dealmaker secretly advised two competing Chinese biotechs at the same time, exposing governance cracks in the booming NewCo licensing model that's reshaping global drug deals. When $110 billion in cross-border deals depends on intermediary trust, one case of alleged double-dealing could change the rules.
Boehringer Ingelheim just committed over $1 billion in potential payments to a startup most people have never heard of. The reason? An AI platform that hunts for cancer targets in a place almost nobody else is looking.
Novo Nordisk is spending up to $1.325 billion on a drug-coating technology thinner than a human cell. The bet: turn weekly obesity shots into monthly ones before competitors beat them to it.
The FDA just approved the first Parkinson's drug to selectively target D1/D5 dopamine receptors, a mechanism no other marketed therapy uses. AbbVie paid $8.7 billion for this drug; now it needs to prove the bet was worth it.
For decades, families with Sanfilippo syndrome were told to take their kids home and love them. Now a $3.9 million gene therapy from Ultragenyx is the first FDA-approved treatment for this fatal childhood brain disease, and it's part of a wave that's reshaping rare disease medicine.
The European Commission just approved the first-ever drug for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare brain disease in boys that previously had zero pharmacological options. A small Spanish biotech pulled off what the industry's giants have struggled to do: deliver a disease-modifying win in neurodegeneration.
ADARx Pharmaceuticals just raised $446 million in an upsized IPO, with AbbVie kicking in another $100 million on the side. It's one of the largest biotech debuts of 2026, and it says a lot about where investor appetite is heading.
Merck KGaA is dropping $11.3 billion on Bio-Techne, a company that doesn't make drugs but makes the tools everyone needs to discover them. It's the biggest life science tools deal in years, and analysts can't decide if it's genius or expensive hubris.
The FDA just approved Eli Lilly's Onswik, a once-weekly insulin shot for type 2 diabetes that cuts annual injections from 365 to 52. With Novo Nordisk's rival already on the market, the pricing and adherence battle is just getting started.
Acadia's Alzheimer's psychosis drug missed its key trial goal by the thinnest of margins. Instead of walking away, the company is charging into Phase 3. Is it a bold bet or a costly mistake?
Biogen pulled off an unusual double feature: the FDA gave its next-gen SMA drug salanersen a Breakthrough Therapy Designation while rejecting (sort of) its high-dose Spinraza application on a technicality. The story behind both decisions reveals where the SMA treatment race is really headed.
Genentech handed Earendil Labs $55 million upfront in a deal that could balloon to $1.5 billion, betting big on the AI-driven biotech's bispecific antibody engine for cancer. It's the second massive pharma partnership Earendil has landed this year, and it says everything about where oncology is headed.
A single IV dose silenced the cholesterol gene PCSK9 for nearly a year in monkeys, slashing LDL by up to 70%. If it works in humans, it could replace daily statins with a one-and-done treatment.
The FDA approved the first-ever combo pairing a HIF-2α inhibitor with a kinase inhibitor for kidney cancer, and the data suggest it outperforms the current go-to option. Merck's belzutifan empire now has five FDA approvals in five years, and Wall Street is paying attention.
Half of relapsed multiple myeloma patients stayed cancer-free for five years after a single CAR-T infusion, with no maintenance therapy. Legend Biotech's latest CARVYKTI data is fueling talk of something oncologists rarely dare to whisper: a potential cure.
Eli Lilly just committed $100 million to a Beijing-based biotech most investors have never heard of, with the total deal worth up to $3.35 billion. The partnership is Lilly's latest and loudest signal that it's not backing away from Chinese innovation, even as Washington tightens the screws on cross-border biotech deals.
Nine of Europe's biggest pharma board chairs co-signed a rare open letter warning the continent faces a "slow agony" of biotech decline. The numbers behind their plea are even worse than the headline suggests.
Roche and Ionis just posted a Phase 3 win for sefaxersen in IgA nephropathy, a kidney disease that already has six approved treatments fighting for market share. The data look promising, but the real question is whether drug number seven can carve out blockbuster territory in biotech's most crowded therapeutic race.
Roche signed a deal worth up to $2 billion with Atavistik Bio, a five-year-old startup most people have never heard of. The kicker: there's no late-stage drug involved, just a discovery platform and a very big bet on what comes after GLP-1s.
Merck's first-in-class Wnt-pathway drug just matched the standard of care in a pivotal diabetic macular edema trial, validating a completely new approach to fixing damaged retinal blood vessels. If the full data hold up, it could reshape a multi-billion-dollar market.
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