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After its next-generation obesity asset CagriSema lost a head-to-head matchup with Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, Novo Nordisk is throwing more money into the obesity space, striking a deal with Vivtex to advance novel weight loss pills.
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IPO
LB Pharma needed $350 million to advance a promising schizophrenia candidate at a time when the biotech markets were locked up tight. Fortunately, it wasn’t CEO Heather Turner’s first rodeo.
Rare disease drug developers struggle to survive in a biopharma investment market that prioritizes large patient populations. Initiatives like the Orphan Therapeutics Accelerator are attempting to solve what CEO Craig Martin says is not a science problem, but a math problem.
Eli Lilly’s win in a head-to-head trial drove Novo Nordisk’s market cap to pre-Wegovy levels not long after the victor became the first pharma company to top a $1 trillion valuation. It seems one company can do no right, while the other can do no wrong.
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FDA
Following the FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s investigational mRNA flu vaccine last week, Commissioner Marty Makary faced questions from the U.S. president about the agency’s handling of vaccines. It’s a clear signal that the tension long brewing at the drug regulator has now gone all the way to the top.
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The FDA previously rejected Zycubo for Menkes disease in October last year, citing issues with the drug’s manufacturing facility.
Jefferies analysts forecast a $1 billion market opportunity for each of Sarepta’s siRNA programs for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and myotonic dystrophy type 1.
Facing the loss of exclusivity on key products, Pfizer has pulled forward its lead obesity asset into Phase III and targeted a 2028 launch. CEO Albert Bourla explained the pharma’s strategy at J.P. Morgan on Monday.
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 FDA initially placed the Phase III IDeate-Lung02 study on hold due to a “higher than expected” number of deaths in patients treated with ifinatamab deruxtecan.
AbbVie has also pledged to participate in TrumpRx and offer many of its products, including Humira, on a direct-to-patient basis. In exchange, the pharma secured exemptions from tariffs and other future pricing directives.
Drugmakers told the FDA that inflexible post-approval change requirements are among the top regulatory barriers to the reshoring of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Former European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan and former U.S. Senator Richard Burr, speaking on a panel at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, pushed to see a larger picture beyond the Trump administration’s year of chaos and confusion.
Mature biopharma deals are stealing all the headlines, but Bristol Myers Squibb’s Robert Plenge says the company’s deals with insitro, Orbital and more are building the future.
The deal, which sees AbbVie paying RemeGen $650 million upfront, gives the pharma ex-China rights to the biotech’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody—a modality being targeted by companies including BMS, Merck and Pfizer.