Of the three highest bidders, Pfizer’s purchase proposal for Metsera was the lowest, regulatory documents reveal. The New York pharma, however, offered the smoothest transaction with the greatest likelihood of success.
Skye Bioscience’s nimacimab fell short of investor and company expectations, but showed encouraging weight-loss results when combined with Wegovy, according to analysts at William Blair.
Amgen will offer its lipid-lowering drug Repatha directly to patients for $239 per month, representing a nearly 60% reduction from the current wholesale acquisition cost of $527.70.
A new survey from CRB showed that most manufacturing initiatives in the U.S. made in response to tariffs are coming from Big Pharma companies, while smaller biotechs are left to hope “the situation doesn’t get worse.”
The inaugural 40 Under 40 cohort includes CEOs, leaders who have founded or co-founded their company and executives from a range of disciplines. Winners’ accomplishments include shaping drug development, achieving key FDA milestones and launching a new field of study.
A new group of CDC advisors voted last month to separate the chickenpox vaccine from the measles, mumps, rubella components of the MMRV shot due to concerns over febrile seizures, while recommending a more risk-based approach to COVID-19 immunizations that mirrors recent FDA approvals.
FEATURED STORIES
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—along with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and CBER Director Vinay Prasad—argued against vaccine mandates, partly because they limited medical choice. This week, the FDA under their leadership approved updated COVID-19 vaccines with restrictions that do the same.
As the political winds shift on a whim and public distrust of the pharma industry reaches fever pitch over drug pricing, executives are being asked to navigate an impassible path.
Generate:Biomedicines’ Nicole Clouse is one of the key legal minds trying to understand who owns what AI creates. The answers are critical to the future of biotech.
If the trend holds, IQVIA expects 2025 deal volume between Chinese and multinational companies to easily eclipse the 100 agreements signed in 2024.
Companies have claimed improvements to yield, batch consistency and output while acknowledging the risks and challenges created by the technology.
The mad rush for safe and effective obesity drugs has winners—including Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy—and losers. Here are five molecules that never made it to the market.
LATEST PODCASTS
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified in front of largely combative congresspeople on vaccine policy, his MAHA report and more; the mass leadership exodus at the FDA continues as CDER and CBER shed key staff; Kennedy’s revamped CDC vaccine advisors convene for their first meeting; Novo and Lilly present new data at the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting; and BioSpace recaps BIO2025.
In this episode of Denatured, BioSpace’s Head of Insights Lori Ellis discusses key themes from BIO and DIA, including the funding environment, with Rich Daly, CEO of Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Peter Ronco, CEO of Emmes Corporation, and Phil Vanek, founder of Redline Bio Advisors.
Another patient has died from acute liver failure after receiving Sarepta’s gene therapy for DMD ; After a quiet start to the year, M&A is back with one deal for a gene editing biotech reinvigorating that sector; and RFK Jr. installs a suite of new vaccine board members who share his skeptical views on vaccines.
Job Trends
While the Chicago metropolitan area is not a major life sciences hub, a recent Cushman & Wakefield report predicts the Chicago market should be a growth spot in the coming years. Chicago Biomedical Consortium and COUR Pharmaceuticals executives share what makes the area a hot spot.
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SPECIAL EDITIONS
In this deep dive, BioSpace explores the next big thing in obesity.
BioSpace did a deep dive into biopharma female executives who navigated difficult markets to lead their companies to high-value exits.
BioSpace data show biopharma professionals faced increased competition for fewer employment opportunities during the second quarter of 2025, with increased pressure from further layoffs.
DEALS
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The deal is Lilly’s second obesity tie-up in a week, after sinking up to $870 million into an agreement with Camurus to develop long-acting versions of molecules against GLP-1 and other incretins. -
Looking at licensing deals struck in the past 10 years, Jefferies found that many Big Pharmas do not ultimately follow through with M&A after earning a right of first negotiation. Sanofi, on the other hand, almost always does, as it did with Vigil recently. -
Jefferies has predicted more small tuck-in deals to come, as biotechs struggle to access capital despite key clinical milestones on the horizon. -
A new report from Pitchbook suggests we’re in for a period of more sustainable investing, with VC firms continuing to create and invest in companies, just more carefully. -
The cancer conference overwhelms the senses and shows off the might of the pharmaceutical industry.
WEIGHT LOSS
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Analysts said the deal with Novo was likely giving Hims “‘credibility’ or increased consumer traffic,” adding that the “litigation risk is back on the table” now that the Danish pharma has stepped away. -
After a season of regulatory upheaval, obesity and rare genetic diseases will likely remain major themes for biopharma in 2025, according to Jefferies. -
With PN-477, Protagonist is directly going up against Eli Lilly, which is advancing retatrutide, also a triple-G agonist, in a Phase II trial. -
Altimmune’s pemvidutide failed to significantly improve fibrosis in MASH patients in a Phase IIb study. The biotech crashed 53% in the aftermath of the readout. -
In the race to make the most tolerable obesity drug, there seems to be no clear winner—at least not according to analysts parsing the data presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting this week.
POLICY
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Hundreds of HHS Staffers Accuse RFK Jr. of ‘Sowing Public Mistrust’ Against CDC After Shooting at HQIn an open letter, Health and Human Services employees asked the Secretary to stop and disavow the spread of health misinformation, particularly about vaccines, infectious diseases and federal health agencies. -
Regulations aiming to lower the cost of vital medicines will instead end up restricting access and disincentivizing R&D. -
The CDC no longer recommends COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women, a position that has been opposed by leading medical societies. -
The Trump administration’s ever-changing tariffs and Most Favored Nation drug pricing are part of a blizzard of unclear, potentially illegal tactics that leave observers throwing their hands in the air. -
A new study in JAMA contradicts a series of statements made by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that paint vaccine advisory committees at the CDC and FDA as hopelessly corrupt.
Generative AI could enhance and accelerate the way people work on clinical trials. In this Q&A, a management consultant shares his insights on benefits, risks and more.
After more than 20 years at Eli Lilly, Leslie Sam moved into independent consulting. To prepare for the transition, she focused on becoming technically deep and earning industry recognition.
Employed and unemployed biotech and pharma professionals are thinking about job hunting in other fields amidst a challenging labor market.
When you don’t get the promotion you wanted, it’s important to assess your company and yourself so you can improve your odds in the future.
Looking for an automation engineer job? Check out these seven companies hiring life sciences professionals like you.
Career support is the No. 2 driver of employee engagement while learning and development is No. 3, according to a new Right Management report. A recent BioSpace survey supports those findings.
HOTBEDS
REPORTS
The 2021 Salary Report is significant in more ways than one. This year, BioSpace analyzed salary data through two key lenses: the impact of the pandemic, and for the first time, race and ethnicity.
BioSpace’s 2022 Salary Report explores the average salaries and salary trends of life sciences professionals. Though movement in the labor market slowed during the pandemic, recovery has been swift and employers are once again having to cope with a highly competitive talent market.
BioSpace has created guidelines on how biopharma organizations, large and small, can effectively support employee resource groups (ERGs), encouraging both their creation and ongoing participation.
CANCER
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Pascal Soriot’s comments came during AstraZeneca’s Q2 earnings call in regard to President Donald Trump’s newly announced European pharma tariffs. The company also announced estimate-beating earnings, with its cancer portfolio driving earnings despite clinical roadblocks. -
The star of GSK’s Hengrui partnership is the COPD candidate HRS-9821, which will complement the pharma’s respiratory pipeline that’s anchored by the anti-asthma drug Nucala. -
Second-quarter earnings come amid many high-level challenges for the biopharma industry. How will these five closely watched biotechs fare? -
The new target action date for Blenrep, which GSK is proposing for the second-line treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, is Oct. 23. -
The latest round of terminations, which will take effect Sept. 15, comes after Genentech fired more than 500 employees in the last 15 months.
NEUROSCIENCE
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FDA reviewers flag “discordant results” in a briefing document published ahead of Friday’s advisory committee meeting for the partners’ application for the antipsychotic in post-traumatic stress disorder. -
Participants in trials of BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics’ NurOwn filed a Citizens’ Petition with the FDA earlier this month seeking a new review of the stem cell therapy that was rejected in 2022 based on real-world data and 90% survival in an expanded access program. -
Johnson & Johnson’s $23.7 billion in second-quarter earnings, driven by cancer and neuroscience drugs, exceeded analyst expectations, while CEO Joaquin Duato set a target of $50 billion in oncology sales by 2030. -
Around 3,500 FDA employees received termination emails; FDA Commissioner Marty Makary suggests lowering industry user fees and tying review times to drug prices; the regulator opens its trove of complete response letters in the name of transparency; and two companies receive rejections for rare disease therapies. -
More than thirty years since its 1993 founding, Catherine Owen Adams and Elizabeth Thompson—the R&D combo that has led Acadia since last year—are managing two products on the market and a pipeline estimated to be worth an additional $12 billion in sales.
CELL AND GENE THERAPY
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After initially refusing to suspend Elevidys distribution after two deaths, Sarepta has now given in to the FDA’s request, noting the need to maintain a good working relationship with the regulator. -
In light of recent patient deaths, the FDA has also revoked its platform designation for Sarepta’s AAVrh74 technology. The designation, granted last month, was the first of its kind to be announced publicly. -
Amid a season of regulatory and scientific advances, experts reveal a culture of data hoarding among cell and gene therapy developers that is reinforcing fragmentation, stalling innovation and delaying access to treatments. -
Following the death of two teenage patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy following Elevidys treatment, Sarepta Therapeutics adds a black box warning to the gene therapy for acute liver injury and failure and parts with more than a third of employees. -
From Wall Street to real estate to a “big, ugly” pharma building, Mayo Venture Partner Audrey Greenberg reflects on a career defined by taking a leap at just the right moment.
