Why Is Lilly Paying Nearly $3 Billion for a Phase 1 Graves' Drug?
Lilly is buying Merida for up to $2.875 billion, betting a Phase 1 autoantibody degrader can treat Graves' without broad immune suppression.
Section
Markets
Capital, M&A, and what biotech is worth this week.
Why Amgen's GIP Blockade Still Trades at a Discount to Dual Agonists
MariTide delivered up to about 20% mean weight loss at 52 weeks without a plateau, then Amgen lost about $7 billion in market value. The remaining fight is GIP direction, first-dose gut burden, and conjugate manufacturing cost.
Roche Bets $190 Million Upfront on Hanmi's Muscle-Sparing Obesity Peptide
The $2.3 billion licensing deal for Phase 1 asset HM17321 targets a core drawback of current GLP-1 therapies: the loss of lean skeletal muscle alongside fat.
European Joint Clinical Assessments Squeeze Biopharma Market Access Timelines
The EU's centralized health technology assessment harmonizes clinical efficacy reviews across 27 member states, forcing drug developers to confront disparate national standards in Phase 3 trial design.
Bristol Myers Squibb Gambles $14 Billion on Cobenfy's Non-Dopamine Mechanism
The first new pharmacological class for schizophrenia in over seventy years relies on muscarinic receptor agonism, trading dopamine motor side effects for gastrointestinal titration challenges.
Compounding Pharmacies Face Regulatory Cliff as GLP-1 Shortages Resolve
Multibillion-dollar factory expansions by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are narrowing official FDA shortage lists, threatening telehealth compounding models built on unapproved peptide copies.
What $820 million for a Phase 1b/2 KCNT1 inhibitor says about rare-epilepsy assets - and about Jazz
Jazz agreed on 10 August to buy Actio Biosciences for $820 million cash plus $500 million in milestones, spinning out everything that is not ABS-1230, to bolt a precision ion-channel drug onto Epidiolex.
The 2028 Patent Cliff Forces Pharma into Creative Biosimilar Settlement Terms
With over $200 billion in branded biologic revenues losing exclusivity by 2030, originator drugmakers are navigating secondary patent litigation under aggressive FTC antitrust scrutiny.
What Lilly’s 48% quarter and Novo’s raised-but-still-shrinking outlook mean for the incretin duopoly
Two earnings prints in 48 hours showed the obesity market splitting: Lilly raised the ceiling; Novo raised guidance into a decline.
Madrigal's Rezdiffra Clears European Hurdle in Liver Disease Battleground
The European Medicines Agency recommended approval for the first-in-class THR-beta agonist for MASH with fibrosis, setting up commercial execution against encroaching GLP-1 combinations.
Merck Commits $1.4 Billion to Expand Next-Generation ADC Arsenal
Aiming to diversify oncology revenues ahead of Keytruda's patent expiry, Merck licensed a topoisomerase ADC platform to develop targeted solid-tumor conjugates.
FTC Scrutiny Expands Beyond Product Overlap to Orphan Drug Pipelines
Antitrust regulators are investigating whether mid-sized biopharma acquisitions could suppress early-stage clinical innovation or delay secondary indication trials in rare diseases.