Deals
The Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization will more than double its U.S. footprint by acquiring the Merck KGaA plants.
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The largest pharmas have a collective $188 billion in firepower to spend on M&A transactions, with all but one signaling a desire to execute, according to a new analysis from Leerink Partners.
China may be taking the majority of licensing deals this year but those transactions don’t tell the whole story, according to Locust Walk, which points to the spike in M&A among U.S. biotechs as leveling the playing field.
After Abogen Biosciences’ COVID shot missed the commercial window, the big question was whether its mRNA technology could create value beyond vaccines. Novartis’ $575 million upfront commitment is the clearest external validation yet of that broader therapeutic potential.
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Merck stole the show at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual conference, with new data on its Moderna-partnered personalized cancer vaccine leaking prior to the presentation and antibody-drug conjugate sac-TMT making a splash in endometrial cancer; Bristol Myers Squibb revealed the death of a patient with multiple sclerosis in an early-stage trial of zola-cel; and pharma is on track to easily surpass last year’s deal count.
Since 2025, U.S. biopharma companies have raised $37.2 billion—68% of total worldwide venture capital funding in the industry—with startups in the San Francisco Bay Area and Boston leading the way.
While biopharma financing exit activity has remained strong through the third quarter, public-market performance for the same period was muted, with most of the yearly gains for the U.S. biotech-specific index largely driven by the first half of 2026.
Gilead Sciences has picked up a new inflammatory disease program from China’s PepStar Therapeutics to pair with the Phase 2 inflammatory bowel disease asset emvistegrast.
A new proposal from the U.S. government seeking to address investment in Chinese biotech as a matter of national security drew cautious statements from across the industry, with leaders vowing to ensure innovation isn’t stifled.
Roche will pay Zymeworks $55 million upfront plus another $40 million once the partnership asset enters Phase 1b development and up to $718 million in additional milestones.
The sector’s IPO tally has surpassed each of the past four years, with four October debuts adding momentum—but activity still remains well below the COVID-19 boom that saw nearly 100 public debuts in 2021.
China cracks down on some biotechnology ownership transfers—but will the new policy impact licensing deals?; Disc Medicine’s Phase 3 data sweep redeems rejected rare disease therapy, teeing up another FDA run; and the ESMO conference gets underway in Madrid this week, with much-anticipated data from Merck, and Summit Therapeutics.
METiS TechBio’s AiLNP platform uses machine learning models to develop lipid nanoparticles with potentially better tissue specificity that could enhance a drug’s therapeutic performance.
Silence Therapeutics’ lead siRNA asset for the rare blood cancer polycythemia vera has been earning analyst raves in a tight race to challenge Takeda in a potential $2 billion market.