Recent Posts
Deals•Feb 26, 2026
Asahi Kasei to Acquire German Biotech Aicuris for €780M
Japanese drugmaker Asahi Kasei announced it will acquire German biotech Aicuris for €780 million, gaining its antiviral therapy pritelivir targeting HSV. The deal expands Asahi Kasei's anti‑infectives portfolio and supports its goal of reaching JPY 300 billion in pharma sales by 2030.
pharmaphorum
Deals•Feb 4, 2026
Novartis to Acquire Avidity Biosciences in $12B Takeover
Swiss pharma giant Novartis announced it will acquire RNA‑drug developer Avidity Biosciences for $12 billion, with the transaction expected to close in the next few months. The deal is part of Novartis' strategy to bolster its pipeline amid significant patent expiries,...
pharmaphorum
Deals•Jan 29, 2026
Sword Health Acquires Kaia Health for $285M
US digital physical therapy specialist Sword Health announced it will acquire competitor Kaia Health for $285 million, creating a combined platform that will dominate the US market and expand into Europe. The deal brings together two digital musculoskeletal care providers,...
pharmaphorum
Deals•Jan 28, 2026
Eikon Therapeutics Prices IPO, Targets $318M Raise
Eikon Therapeutics, the biotech startup founded by former MSD R&D head Roger Perlmutter, announced pricing of its Nasdaq IPO at $16‑$18 per share, aiming to raise up to $318 million and achieve a valuation above $900 million. The company will list under...
pharmaphorum
Deals•Jan 20, 2026
AstraZeneca Pays $630M to Acquire Full Control of AbelZeta's CAR‑T Therapy C‑CAR031
AstraZeneca has paid $630 million to buy out AbelZeta’s 50 % share of the China development and commercialisation rights to the CAR‑T therapy C‑CAR031, securing full control of the anti‑GPC3 treatment in China. The deal expands AZ’s CAR‑T portfolio following prior acquisitions...
pharmaphorum
News•Jan 16, 2026
Sanofi Linked to Takeover Bid for Ocular Therapeutix
Sanofi is reportedly preparing a renewed takeover bid for US‑based Ocular Therapeutix after its initial $16‑per‑share offer was rejected last summer. Ocular, valued at roughly $2.4 billion with shares trading around $11.28, is poised to file for approval of Axpaxli, a...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 16, 2026
Ocugen Shares Fall, Despite Positive Eye Disorder Trial
Ocugen reported that its phase‑2 ArMaDa trial of the gene therapy OCU410 achieved a 46% reduction in geographic atrophy lesion growth for medium and high doses, with the medium dose showing a 54% reduction. The data also revealed a 60%...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 16, 2026
Autonomous AI Can Spot Cognitive Decline in Medical Notes
Researchers at Mass General Brigham unveiled an autonomous, agentic AI system that scans routine clinical notes to flag early cognitive impairment. The platform, built from five specialized LLM agents, demonstrated 98% specificity and 91% sensitivity in balanced testing, though real‑world...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 15, 2026
J&J Builds Case for Earlier Tecvayli Use in Multiple Myeloma
Johnson & Johnson reported that Tecvayli (teclistamab) monotherapy cut overall survival risk by 40% in the MajesTEC‑9 trial for patients who had received one to three prior lines of therapy. The same study showed a 71% reduction in progression‑free survival...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 15, 2026
Novartis Issues a Life Sciences Warning in a 'G-Zero' World
Novartis has sent an open letter to governments in the EU, Canada and Japan warning that fragmented regulation, unpredictable pricing and blunt cost‑control tools are causing Europe to lose life‑science ground to the United States and China. The company, together...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 15, 2026
Oxford BioMedica Confirms Private Equity Takeover Talks
Oxford BioMedica, a UK contract development and manufacturing organisation specialising in cell and gene therapies, disclosed an unsolicited cash approach from Stockholm‑listed private‑equity group EQT. The news sent the shares up 15% intraday and over a third higher year‑to‑date, reflecting...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 14, 2026
FDA Seeks Changes to GLP-1, Flu Shot Labels
The FDA has asked manufacturers of GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs, including Wegovy, Saxenda and Zepbound, to drop the suicide‑ideation warning after a comprehensive safety review found no elevated risk. The agency’s meta‑analysis of 91 trials involving more than 100,000 participants confirmed...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 14, 2026
Hippocratic AI Builds in Life Sciences with Grove AI Buy
Hippocratic AI announced the acquisition of Grove AI, a pharma‑R&D specialist, and launched a dedicated life‑sciences division headed by Dr Ahad Wahid. The move adds the Grace agent, which automates clinical‑trial tasks, to Hippocratic's safety‑first generative AI portfolio. The company,...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 14, 2026
JPM: Illumina Launches 'Unprecedented' Disease Biology Atlas
Illumina unveiled the Billion Cell Atlas, a genome‑wide perturbation database that profiles 20,000 genes across 250 disease‑relevant human cell types using CRISPR. The initial release contains data from 150 million cells and aims to expand to five billion cells within three years,...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 14, 2026
UK Names Health Data Chief, as BIA Finds Its New CEO
Former Moderna executive Dr Melanie Ivarsson has been named chief executive of the UK Health Data Research Service, a £600 million government‑backed unit that will create a secure, single gateway to NHS health data. The HDRS, based at the Wellcome Genome...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 13, 2026
AbbVie Turbocharges Its US Investment Promise to $100bn
AbbVie has signed a most‑favoured‑nation pricing deal with the Trump administration, committing $100 billion to U.S. research, development and manufacturing over the next ten years. The agreement mirrors those of 16 other large pharma firms and secures an exemption from potential...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 13, 2026
JPM: Is the UK's Clinical Trials Sector Turning a Corner?
The UK medicines regulator reported a 9% rise in clinical trial applications year‑over‑year, with early‑stage studies leading the growth. Healthy‑volunteer and first‑in‑human trials increased 16% and 5% respectively, while sponsor requests for regulatory advice surged 75%. The MHRA announced a...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 12, 2026
JPM: AbbVie Pays $650m Upfront for RemeGen Cancer Drug
AbbVie has signed a $5.6 billion licensing agreement with China’s RemeGen, paying $650 million upfront for exclusive rights to the PD‑1×VEGF bispecific antibody RC148 outside Greater China. The deal includes up to $4.95 billion in milestone payments and gives AbbVie access to a...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 12, 2026
Abivax Climbs on Lilly Takeover Speculation
Shares of French biotech Abivax jumped about 32% after La Lettre reported that Eli Lilly may be considering a €15 billion takeover. The speculation follows Abivax's positive phase 3 data for obefazimod, an oral miR‑124 enhancer, in ulcerative colitis. The deal would add...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 12, 2026
Madrigal Eyes Combination MASH Therapy with Pfizer Deal
Madrigal Pharma has licensed Pfizer’s oral DGAT‑2 inhibitor ervogastat for a $50 million upfront payment, planning to pair it with its approved MASH drug Rezdiffra. The combination targets complementary pathways in triglyceride synthesis and inflammation, aiming to enhance therapeutic outcomes for...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 9, 2026
J&J Jumps on the MFN Pricing Train
Johnson & Johnson has become the latest pharmaceutical company to sign a Most‑Favoured Nation (MFN) drug‑pricing agreement with the Trump administration, securing an exemption from looming tariffs. The deal, the 15th of its kind, will make J&J medicines available through...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 9, 2026
Report Says MSD Is in Talks to Buy Revolution Meds
Financial Times reports MSD is in advanced talks to acquire Revolution Medicines in a deal valued between $28 billion and $32 billion, potentially the largest pharma merger since Pfizer's Seagen purchase. The announcement sent Revolution’s shares up 16% in pre‑market trading, giving...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 8, 2026
Servier Signs €1bn-Plus AI Pact with Iktos
Servier has inked a partnership with Paris‑based Iktos valued at over €1 billion to harness generative AI and robotics for small‑molecule drug discovery. The alliance targets oncology and neurological diseases and follows a recent $888 million AI deal with Insilico Medicine. Iktos’...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 8, 2026
Court Blocks HHS' 340B Rebate Programme Pilot
U.S. federal judges in the First Circuit upheld a Maine injunction that blocks the Health Resources and Services Administration’s pilot to replace upfront 340B drug discounts with post‑sale rebates. The decision keeps hospitals from having to purchase ten high‑volume medicines...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 8, 2026
Study Finds Weight Returns More Quickly in GLP-1 Users
A new BMJ meta‑analysis of 37 studies involving over 9,000 adults shows that weight lost with GLP‑1 agonists such as Wegovy and Mounjaro is regained rapidly after treatment stops, at about 0.8 kg per month. This rebound rate is four times...
By pharmaphorum
News•Jan 8, 2026
Hengrui Gets First OK for a PD-L1/TGF-Beta Drug for Cancer
Jiangsu Hengrui Pharma secured China’s first approval for retlirafusp alfa, a bispecific PD‑L1/TGF‑beta fusion protein, as a frontline treatment for advanced gastric and gastro‑esophageal junction adenocarcinoma. The decision follows the phase 3 RELIGHT trial, which demonstrated a 34% overall‑survival gain versus...
By pharmaphorum