Deals

Novartis and Unnatural Products did not specify which disease targets they’re going after, only noting that the latter’s macrocyclic platform can generate potentially next-generation therapies that could apply to cardiovascular conditions.
FEATURED STORIES
Henry Gosebruch, who has $3.5 billion in capital to deploy, is thinking broad as he steers the decades-old biotech out of years of turmoil. 
Speaking on the sidelines of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Novo business development executive Tamara Darsow said the company is gunning for obesity and diabetes assets.
Buying vaccine biotech Dynavax was an easy choice for Sanofi despite anti-vaccine moves by the Trump administration.
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The star of the acquisition is the enzyme replacement therapy INZ-701, being developed for the rare disease ENPP1 deficiency.
After warnings that the dragged-out process was putting the cell therapy company at risk of bankruptcy, bluebird bio now has a new deal to offer shareholders.
Currently trailing Eli Lilly and Structure Therapeutics in the oral weight loss space, Novo Nordisk strikes a deal with Septerna to put new discovery-stage programs into play.
The ADARx Pharmaceuticals partnership, which could be worth “several billion dollars” in the end, adds to AbbVie’s existing work in the space after the $1.4 billion acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics in October 2024.
GSK secures rights to Boston Pharmaceuticals’ efimosfermin alfa, which the pharma plans to develop for fatty liver diseases such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and alcohol-related liver disease.
It’s another wild twist in the story of Galapagos, a company that has been around for more than 25 years but has yet to get a therapy approved.
M&A and IPOs got off to a quick start in 2025 only to crash into a wall of policy challenges. Upfront payment for licensing transactions, however, grew as pharmas looked for less-risky deals.
ALS
The Alchemab deal will further strengthen Lilly’s early-stage pipeline for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, coming less than a year after the pharma licensed QurAlis’ antisense oligonucleotide to correct a specific protein alteration in ALS.
After multiple rounds of layoffs that cut Kronos down to just 10 people, the small molecule biotech has accepted a buyout offer from Kevin Tang’s Concentra Biosciences.
Announcing first-quarter results, Biogen CEO Chris Viehbacher admitted that tariffs are “a new topic for us,” but said he does not expect major impacts—at least for 2025.