Cardiovascular disease
In its 2025 full year and fourth-quarter earnings call, Merck executives touted the merits of recent deals and what CEO Robert Davis called “probably the broadest and widest pipeline we’ve had in years.”
Corcept’s relacorilant was rejected for hypercortisolism late last year—a decision which CEO Joseph Belanoff expressed surprise with at the time.
Obesity took center stage on the first day of the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, with industry frontrunners Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk providing supply chain, regulatory and pricing updates.
The cardiovascular biotech was also named as one of BioSpace’s top startups to watch on Wednesday.
As 2026 begins, a slate of high-stakes clinical readouts—from a pivotal study of Novartis’ cardiovascular candidate pelacarsen to a Phase III test of Eli Lilly’s next-gen Alzheimer’s drug—are poised to reshape therapeutic landscapes.
Stifel analysts said the label for cardiac myosin inhibitor Myqorzo is in line with their expectations and is differentiated compared with BMS’ Camzyos.
After 27 years in business, Cytokinetics hopes to pit its own cardiac myosin inhibitor against one it initially developed—now owned by Bristol Myers Squibb—in a market worth billions. Aficamten has a PDUFA date of Dec. 26.
The tickets could go to the lipid-lowering pill enlicitide decanoate and the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab tirumotecan, though a spokesperson for the HHS did not confirm the news.
The FDA had previously turned back the heart rhythm nasal spray twice, once in late 2023 with a refusal to file letter and again in March this year, when it flagged manufacturing issues.
The FDA’s docket in December includes decisions for two big biologic franchises: BMS’s Breyanzi and Amgen’s Uplizna.
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