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Next-gen obesity drugs score major late-stage efficacy milestones
Eli Lilly’s retatrutide notched a late-stage milestone for next-generation weight-loss therapy in TRIUMPH-2, with the company reporting dose-dependent weight loss of up to 22%+ in people with...
Big Pharma doubles down on precision oncology with KRAS-targeted molecular glues
Merck agreed to a licensing and collaboration deal with SciBrunch Therapeutics for SPR2015, a preclinical oral precision oncology candidate designed to inhibit KRAS G12D (ON) by molecular-glue...
AstraZeneca places $2B equity bet on PD-1/VEGF bispecific strategy
AstraZeneca invested $2 billion in Summit Therapeutics, taking an equity stake and setting up clinical collaboration plans around Summit’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific ivonescimab. The investment includes...
Novo and Hengrui expand the weekly obesity tablet race
Novo Nordisk signed a licensing deal with Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals for HRS-1596, a preclinical once-weekly oral dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist. Novo will pay $300 million upfront, with...
Beam escalates base editing disputes with trade-secret lawsuit
Beam Therapeutics sued YolTech Therapeutics and Serapha Bio, alleging theft of Beam’s CRISPR base editing trade secrets and confidential information used to build a rival therapy platform. Beam...
Regulatory setback hits B7-H3 ADC path in small-cell lung cancer
Daiichi Sankyo and Merck voluntarily withdrew their B7-H3-directed ADC ifinatamab deruxtecan (i-dxd) BLA in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer after disease progression on or after platinum...
UniQure reports waning durability signals for Huntington’s gene therapy
UniQure’s AMT-130 Huntington’s gene therapy came under renewed scrutiny after the company reported additional follow-up data suggesting the magnitude of benefit has waned compared with results...
CAR-T expansion and governance pressures surface in lupus and manufacturing
Two threads underscored how CAR-T is moving beyond oncology into immune-mediated disease while continuing to confront practical bottlenecks. Adicet Bio reported early clinical results for...
Precision data platforms for antibody developability get industry-scale traction
Ginkgo Datapoints and Apheris launched an Antibody Developability Consortium to help pharmaceutical and biotech teams predict manufacturability and developability risks earlier in discovery. The...
Novel immune-resetting biotech emerges from stealth with funding and a T-cell targeting platform
ai3Bio emerged from stealth with $48 million in funding as it targets autoimmune disease by eliminating specific T helper cell subsets rather than broadly depleting B cells. The company positions...
AstraZeneca stakes $2B on Summit’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific for combo oncology
AstraZeneca agreed to invest $2 billion in Summit Therapeutics, taking a minority equity position while setting up clinical collaborations around Summit’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific ivonescimab. Under...
Beam Therapeutics sues over alleged base-editing trade secret theft
Beam Therapeutics filed suit alleging IP theft tied to its CRISPR base editing technology, naming a former scientist and two China-linked biotech entities. The company claims that Zi Jun “Emma”...
UniQure’s Huntington gene therapy faces durability concerns
UniQure’s Huntington’s disease gene therapy AMT-130 continued to slow disease progression at the four-year mark, but new additional-year follow-up data showed a weakening magnitude of benefit. The...
Novo buys into China’s Hengrui weekly oral obesity drug (HRS-1596)
Novo Nordisk licensed a preclinical once-weekly, oral GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist candidate from Hengrui Pharma, paying $300 million upfront with total deal value up to $2.6 billion tied to...
Merck adds $400M upfront for SciBrunch KRAS G12D program
Merck signed an exclusive global licensing deal with China-based SciBrunch Therapeutics for a preclinical KRAS G12D (on) inhibitor program, paying $400 million upfront and valuing the agreement at...
FDA/EMA shift on evidence expectations: focus moves beyond trial counts
The European Medicines Agency argued that drug developers should prioritize generating robust evidence rather than adhering to a fixed trial-count standard. In an editorial, EMA executive director...
EU regulator leadership: Emer Cooke reiterates gender gaps in trials
EMA executive director Emer Cooke used the end of her six-year mandate to reiterate concern that women remain under-represented in clinical research. Cooke said the continued imbalance produces...
CAR-T scalability push: Link Cell appoints new CEO and ties to BMS
Link Cell, a CAR-T startup, named Friedrich Graf Finckenstein as CMO and appointed Jie D’Elia as CEO, with the backing structure involving references to Bristol Myers Squibb and SystImmune in the...
AI-guided optimization enables thermostable mRNA vaccine formulations
Nature Biotechnology published research describing an AI framework—Algorithm-Guided Experimental design for lipid Nanoparticle Thermostabilization (AGENT)—that identifies thermostable, solid-state...
Earendil Labs lands $1.5B Genentech discovery deal for oncology bispecifics
Earendil Labs secured a large discovery collaboration with Genentech, with the agreement framed as a $1.5 billion collaboration focused on developing bispecific antibody therapeutics for oncology....