The White House is clamping down on pharma’s ability to buy new molecules from Chinese biotechs; Sanofi, Merck and others abandon the U.K. after the introduction of a sizeable levy; Novo CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar lays off 9,000 while the company presents new data at EASD; Capsida loses a patient in a gene therapy trial; and CDER Director George Tidmarsh walks back comments on FDA adcomms.
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A global shift may be underway in biopharma as the White House prepares legislation that would place restrictions on drugs brought to the U.S. from China, while pharma companies exit the U.K. in droves. President Donald Trump is reportedly writing an executive order that would clamp down on the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to buy new molecules from biotechs based in China, while Sanofi, Merck and more have canceled or suspended investments in the U.K. following a sizable increase in a mandatory levy in the region.
In other business news, Novo Nordisk’s newly appointed CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar hit the ground running, cutting around 9,000 employees and informing those who remained that they would need to return to the office. Novo’s headcount had climbed 81% in five years as its revenue soared—and then fell. The obesity juggernaut has been a key presence at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ annual meeting this week, announcing that it would seek FDA approval for a high-dose formulation of Wegovy, while also presenting new data for its long-acting amylin analog cagrilintide. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Eli Lilly’s orforglipron could potentially qualify for the FDA’s recently launched Commissioner’s Priority Voucher, which could see the oral obesity candidate approved this year.
The gene therapy space was hit with more bad news as Capsida Biotherapeutics reported the death of a patient being treated with its investigational gene therapy for epileptic disorders. This follows an unfortunate trend in 2025 that has also seen deaths attributed to Sarepta’s approved Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy Elevidys and a monoclonal antibody used for lymphodepletion in a study of Allogene’s CAR T cell therapy cema-cell. According to a new analyst survey, however, doctors are still prescribing Elevidys to ambulatory patients.
Meanwhile, on the regulatory front, FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Director George Tidmarsh reportedly told two separate groups last week that he “would like to get away” from advisory committee meetings, but appeared to quickly walk the comments back in a statement to Endpoints News.
Finally, in BioPharm Executive, BioSpace takes a deep dive into the FDA’s new crackdown on pharmaceutical drug ads, and spotlights Akeso CEO Michelle Xia who built the biotech from a $3 million angel fundraising round to its current $15 billion valuation.
