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Commitments in obesity- and diabetes-focused deals reached $22 billion in the first quarter of 2026—already eclipsing last year’s total of $20.3 billion, according to a new J.P. Morgan report.
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Gilead, AstraZeneca and Vertex have acquired more than just a therapeutic asset in recent deals. BioSpace takes a look at five recent transactions where the staff was the real centerpiece.
FDA
BioSpace looks back at 2025 and where the FDA is going in 2026.
During the pharma earnings season, which begins on Tuesday, Novo Nordisk will report the first revenue numbers from an oral GLP-1 medicine, while other companies are expected to address the FDA, drug pricing and Trump’s new tariffs.
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Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy has a few months’ head start on Eli Lilly’s newly approved pill. While the Indianapolis pharma has come from behind the Danish rival in the weight loss space before, last time it clearly had the better drug.
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After divorcing Denali Therapeutics earlier this month, Takeda is now splitting up with Veritas In Silico, pulling back from a partnership that advanced novel small-molecule drugs targeting mRNA.
The FDA is asking Eli Lilly to submit cardiovascular and liver safety data from an ongoing Phase 3 trial of Foundayo by July.
Johnson and Johnson kicked off first-quarter earnings season with a “modest” beat and an ambitious goal; Replimune failed again to gain approval for its advanced melanoma therapy, as analysts tout increased accountability brought by the FDA’s new policy of publicizing complete response letters; and Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer candidate doubled survival in one of cancer’s most intractable foes.
The draft guidance supports the agency’s new pathway designed to speed up the development of custom gene therapies.
With robust sales performance from oncology darling Darzalex and immunology superstar Tremfya, Johnson & Johnson is “off to a fast start in 2026,” CEO Joaquin Duato told investors on Tuesday.
With many overseas patients preferring orals to injectables, Eli Lilly has filed for approval of orforglipron in more than 40 countries and is building manufacturing capacity to support the obesity drug.
Eli Lilly is putting its obesity windfall to work again, striking a new deal to acquire CrossBridge Bio, a small Texas biotech known for its cancer tech.
The FDA has greenlit Travere Therapeutics’ Filspari as the only available treatment for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis despite the drug’s loss to Sanofi’s Avapro in a Phase 3 study.
IPO
Kailera Therapeutics is advancing a pipeline of obesity drugs, led by the GLP-1/GIP dual agonist ribupatide, which the biotech is developing both as an injectable and as a pill.
Some 30% of clinical trials that are mandated to report their findings have not posted results to clinicaltrials.gov, the federal government’s public repository for studies, according to internal data from the FDA.