AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP
NEWS
In 2025, landmark obesity drug deals, China’s biotech surge, and AI’s deeper integration into pharma operations drove a year of transformation and renewed momentum for life sciences.
With pricing pressures climbing, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and other major drugmakers are looking to sell their products directly to patients. Analysts are skeptical that these efforts, including those announced to much fanfare from the White House, will result in meaningful reductions in drug spending.
In an investor call Thursday, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot outlined his company’s approach to obesity drug development based on “the medical aspect” of weight loss, including driving down visceral fat.
Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb were among the many biopharmas showing off novel cancer modalities at ESMO, with antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and kinase inhibitors demonstrating encouraging efficacy and safety for various cancers.
After beating Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide last month, Lilly’s much anticipated oral candidate orforglipron has taken down AstraZeneca’s Farxiga in a head-to-head trial.
The British pharmaceutical giant has joined the direct-to-consumer push, following Pfizer and Amgen’s announcements in response to the president’s calls to lower U.S. drug prices.
AstraZeneca has invested heavily in AI, primarily through collaborations, including an up to $5.3 billion partnership with China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical in June.
Talks between pharma and successive U.K. governments have failed to deliver the market access terms that the industry wants, contributing to a pullback in investment.
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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