Annalee Armstrong headshot

Annalee Armstrong

Senior Editor

Annalee Armstrong is an award-winning biopharma journalist covering the business of drug development. She began her career at small newspapers across Western Canada. During the assignment of a lifetime, the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race, she met her husband in Alaska and eventually moved to the U.S. Since then, Annalee has covered energy, environmental regulations, healthcare and biopharma. Prior to BioSpace, Annalee was senior editor for Fierce Biotech, where she received several awards for her writing and editing. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with her husband, two wild boys, an anxious Rhodesian Ridgeback and an indifferent tabby cat.

Overall, the top 16 largest pharmaceutical companies spent $159 billion on research and development in 2025, compared to $165 billion the year prior. Here’s where all that cash went at companies like Johnson & Johnson, Amgen and Pfizer.
Trace Neuroscience, a member of BioSpace’s NextGen Class of 2026, has learned from the success of Biogen’s Qalsody and aims to bring more treatment options to the ALS community.
Biotech, in particular companies that are pre-commercial with a longer-duration risk profile, could be great investments as Operation Epic Fury rolls on, according to a Truist Securities analysis.
FDA
Sarepta Therapeutics says the FDA has agreed to review a regulatory package for Amondys 45 and Vyondys 53 after they failed a confirmatory trial, but whether the agency will agree to approve them is still unknown.
Protagonist Therapeutics will now sit back and collect cash from the J&J partnership, including an immediate $50 million payment.
The major pharmas are loaded up with trillions in firepower—but are sticking to mid-cap deals. One expert says it might be time to think outside the box and shake up the industry with some consolidation.
Pfizer has a lofty goal for the CDK4 inhibitor atirmociclib, the New York pharma’s answer to Ibrance’s loss of patent protection next year. In 2025, Ibrance led Pfizer’s oncology portfolio with $1.04 billion in sales.
Dozens of biotechs reported earnings this week. BioSpace recaps key highlights from Capricor Therapeutics, Legend Biotech, Inovio and Allogene.
Total assets under management for Novo Holdings, Novo Nordisk’s controlling shareholder, fell by more than one-third last year. The report caps off a tumultuous year for the Novo group of companies.
Rare disease biotech stocks pop on the news that Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s chief biologics regulator, will depart the FDA at the end of April; Sen. Ron Johnson launches an investigation into recent rare disease drug rejections; and Roche and Zealand’s amylin analog fails to match investor expectations—and Eli Lilly’s rival candidate—in a mid-stage trial.
Whether happening in public or private, biopharma M&A is fiercer than ever. Experts point to patent pressures, herd mentality and a declining stock of available biotechs with mature assets.
The move comes as BioNTech shifts to being a multiproduct commercial biotech, allowing Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci to transition back into research on next-generation mRNA therapeutics.
Stylus Medicine, a member of BioSpace’s NextGen Class of 2026, launched in May 2025 to develop new, less complex genetic medicines. The company’s in vivo approach has attracted “intense” interest from Big Pharma.
Hansoh’s olatorepatide achieved 19% weight loss at 48 weeks in a Phase 3 trial in China, handing partner Regeneron a glimmer of hope for a pipeline in desperate need of reinvigoration.
Roche’s shares tumbled nearly 5% on news that a key pillar in the five-pronged clinical plan for the breast cancer asset giredestrant was unsuccessful.