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.

While Novartis secured the biggest deal of the fourth quarter, a handful of riveting tales emerged from the bottom of the M&A list, including a zombie buyout and a bidding war. And no, we’re not talking about Metsera.
The major depressive disorder failure for BHV-7000 is the drug’s second, after Biohaven’s spinocerebellar ataxia treatment troriluzole was rejected by the FDA in November 2025.
With a pair of Phase III trial flops, Ultragenyx will explore cost reductions as analysts turn attention to an upcoming Angelman syndrome readout.
Despite the definitive failure of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide in Alzheimer’s, biotech executives, analysts and other industry experts see potential in more testing of GLP-1s for the neurodegenerative disease, particularly in a combination approach.
The patient, who died on December 14, was originally enrolled in a Phase III study in 2022 and transitioned into an extension phase in 2023.
IPO
The biotech, which has a deal with Eli Lilly worth as much as $1.1 billion, is developing two targeted radiopharmaceuticals from its miniprotein radioconjugate platform.
Ceralasertib is part of AstraZeneca’s ambitious plan to hit $80 billion in revenue by 2030.
Jacobio discovered JAB-23E73, which is designed to treat several KRAS mutation subtypes, and is testing the therapy in multiple Phase I trials.
Pfizer and Metsera, Sarepta and uniQure made the list with dramatic tales. The other two spots went to the regulatory challenges facing biopharma under the new administration, especially in the vaccines sector.
The second half finished strong after two tumultuous years. What will 2026 bring for the biotech sector?
Eli Lilly’s retatrutide exceeds expectations in Phase III, capping off a sparkling 2025 for the obesity titan; an internal FDA safety review finds no confirmed pediatric deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines, and Commissioner Marty Makary says no black box warning will be attached to the shots; and BioSpace looks at six biotechs that could be pharma’s next buy.
2026 is set to be a banner year for M&A in biopharma, as buyers facing major patent cliffs fight for a small pool of late-stage assets.
Metsera showed the biopharma world that M&A is back. Who could be next?
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla defended his company’s vaccine business as rhetoric from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drives a notable drop in COVID-19 sales.
Ambros Therapeutics’ non-opioid bisphosphonate analgesic, already approved in Italy, will soon begin a pivotal test in the U.S.