In this edition
Monday: Walgreens take-private; Novartis loses Entresto; UK-first menopause pill; UK measles
Tuesday: Waters buys BD diagnostics; AstraZeneca baxdrostat; CSL R&D cuts
Thursday: UK life sciences plan; FDA review exodus; UK three-person IVF babies
Friday: FDA panel rejects Blenrep; direct-to-patient Eliquis; Sarepta trial death
Monday 14 July
Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders approved the roughly $10 billion take-private by Sycamore Partners, ending the company’s near-century on the public market.
At a special meeting on 11 July, holders of 626.2 million shares voted to adopt the March merger agreement with Blazing Star Parent, the Sycamore acquisition vehicle, and cleared the separate majority of unaffiliated shares the deal required. The vote lets the transaction move to closing.
Sycamore is understood to be weighing a sale or spin-off of Boots, among Walgreens’ better-performing assets, which would put the British chain’s ownership back in play.
Sources:
Walgreens Boots Alliance Form 8-K, special meeting vote results - SEC EDGAR
Boots shareholders agree to be taken private - The Times
Novartis lost its court bid to block generic versions of Entresto, its biggest seller.
On 11 July the US District Court for the District of Delaware ruled against Novartis in its patent fight with MSN Pharmaceuticals over Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan), its top-selling heart-failure drug. The ruling brings US generic entry closer. It is the latest reverse in a long-running dispute that had already reached the Federal Circuit.
Sources:
The UK cleared Bayer’s elinzanetant for menopausal hot flushes, the first approval anywhere in the world.
On 8 July the MHRA approved elinzanetant, sold as Lynkuet, a non-hormonal capsule for moderate-to-severe vasomotor symptoms. It works on the brain signalling that disrupts temperature control, and approval rested on the OASIS trials in more than 1,400 women aged 40 to 65. The MHRA reached its decision ahead of the US FDA, a rare first-in-world clearance and a data point for the UK’s pitch on regulatory speed.
Sources:
MHRA approves elinzanetant to treat moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms caused by menopause - MHRA
A measles outbreak in Liverpool worsened as MMR vaccination rates fell.
On 13 July Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust said it had treated 17 children for the effects and complications of measles since June and was worried about the rising number of cases. A child has died in the outbreak, according to reporting the trust would not confirm for confidentiality reasons. The backdrop is a European one: WHO/Europe and UNICEF recorded 127,350 measles cases across the region in 2024, double the 2023 figure and the most since 1997, with vaccination still short of pre-pandemic levels.
Sources:
Statement from Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust re measles - Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Measles outbreak in Liverpool as vaccine rate falls - The Times
European Region reports highest number of measles cases in more than 25 years - WHO/Europe and UNICEF
Tuesday 15 July
Waters agreed to combine with BD’s biosciences and diagnostics business in a deal valued at about $17.5 billion.
Announced on 14 July, the transaction is structured as a Reverse Morris Trust, with BD shareholders expected to own about 39.2% of the combined company and existing Waters holders the rest. It carries BD’s Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions unit into Waters and roughly doubles the lab-tools maker’s addressable market. The companies put pro forma 2025 revenue for the combination at about $6.5 billion.
Sources:
Waters and BD’s Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions business to combine - BD and Waters Corporation
AstraZeneca’s baxdrostat hit its target in a Phase III hypertension trial.
On 14 July the company said baxdrostat met the primary and all secondary endpoints in the BaxHTN study, cutting mean seated systolic blood pressure against placebo at 12 weeks on top of standard care. The patients had uncontrolled or treatment-resistant hypertension, where about half of those on multiple drugs stay above target. The drug was generally well tolerated. The readout keeps AstraZeneca’s late-stage cardiovascular pipeline on course.
Sources:
CSL is preparing to shrink its research and development operation.
The Australian plasma and vaccines group is weighing a cut of up to a third of its R&D workforce, consolidating the function across six global locations and leaning more on outside partnerships. The move comes as the sector braces for US tariffs. CSL issued no release of its own on the plans, which surfaced through the Australian Financial Review and were reported by Reuters on 14 July.
Sources:
Wednesday 16 July
President Trump put a date on pharmaceutical tariffs, saying they are probable by 1 August.
Speaking to reporters on 15 July, he set out a phased approach: a low tariff at first, about a year for drugmakers to build US manufacturing, then a very high rate. The timeline lands directly on UK and European exporters with large US sales, and follows the Section 232 national-security investigation into pharmaceutical imports opened in the spring.
Sources:
The FDA questioned whether GSK has shown enough to bring Blenrep back to the US market.
In briefing documents released before a 17 July advisory committee meeting, the agency said GSK had not adequately optimised the drug’s dosing, pointing to high rates of eye toxicity and poor tolerability in the DREAMM-7 and DREAMM-8 combination trials. Blenrep, an antibody-drug conjugate for multiple myeloma, was pulled from the US market in 2022 after a failed confirmatory trial. Its return is a test of GSK’s oncology rebuild.
Sources:
Sino Biopharmaceutical agreed to buy China’s LaNova Medicines for about $950.9 million.
Announced on 15 July, the deal takes the Shanghai oncology biotech to full ownership: Sino Biopharmaceutical is buying the roughly 95.09% of LaNova it did not already hold. LaNova’s pipeline runs to bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates, and it is the originator of a PD-1xVEGF bispecific partnered with Merck. A domestic buyer taking out a homegrown innovator is a rare transaction in a market where such biotechs have mostly monetised by out-licensing to Western companies.
Sources:
Sino Biopharmaceutical to acquire LaNova Medicines - Sino Biopharmaceutical
AstraZeneca’s anselamimab missed its main goal in a late-stage amyloidosis study.
On 16 July the company said anselamimab did not reach statistical significance on the primary endpoint, a ranked combination of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular hospitalisations, across the overall patient population in the CARES Phase III programme in light chain amyloidosis. A prespecified subgroup showed a clinically meaningful benefit. The miss is a setback for the rare disease pipeline built around AstraZeneca’s Alexion unit, a week after a Phase III win for its hypertension drug baxdrostat.
Sources:
Update on CARES Phase III clinical programme of anselamimab in light chain amyloidosis - AstraZeneca
Thursday 17 July
Britain’s new Life Sciences Sector Plan drew a mixed reception, landing back on drug pricing.
Published on 16 July, the cross-government plan sets out to make the UK the leading life sciences economy in Europe by 2030 and third in the world, behind the US and China, by 2035, with commitments on R&D, investment, manufacturing and health data. Industry welcomed those measures but said they change little without a resolution on the price the NHS pays for branded medicines. The ABPI said the plan is not enough to reverse the UK’s decline while the medicine-pricing question is left open, arguing that current payment rates leave the UK out of line with comparable countries.
Sources:
Life Sciences Sector Plan - Department for Business and Trade and Department of Health and Social Care
Departures from the FDA’s drug-review centre ran far ahead of hiring in the first half of the year.
The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research lost 385 employees between January and the end of June, against just 18 new hires over the same period, per the FDA’s own quarterly net-hiring data. The imbalance points to a shrinking review workforce as the application load continues, and follows the wider restructuring of health agencies this year.
Sources:
FDA drugs center sees sharp rise in staff departures since January - Endpoints News
Eight healthy babies have been born in the UK following mitochondrial donation.
Reported on 16 July in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Newcastle team’s results cover eight babies born to seven women at high risk of passing on mitochondrial DNA disease. The technique creates embryos using genetic material from three people by pronuclear transfer, and in these cases the disease-causing mitochondrial DNA was either undetectable or at levels very unlikely to cause disease. The work was carried out under the UK’s regulated framework for the procedure, the first published clinical outcomes from the licensed programme.
Sources:
Mitochondrial Donation within a Reproductive Care Pathway for mtDNA Disease - New England Journal of Medicine
Friday 18 July
An FDA advisory panel voted against GSK’s blood cancer drug Blenrep.
On 17 July the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee found the benefit-risk profile unfavourable at the proposed dose for the Blenrep combinations in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, citing the eye-related side effects documented with the treatment. The vote follows the FDA’s own doubts set out earlier in the week. It is a setback for GSK’s bid to return the drug to the US market after its 2022 withdrawal.
Sources:
Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer will sell the blood thinner Eliquis directly to patients at a discount.
Announced on 17 July, the direct-to-patient option offers Eliquis to eligible self-pay patients in the US at more than 40% off the list price, through the Eliquis 360 Support programme, from 8 September. Eliquis is among the most widely used prescription drugs in the country. The move follows the Trump administration’s pressure on manufacturers to cut what Americans pay for medicines.
Sources:
Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer announce direct-to-patient Eliquis (apixaban) option - Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer
A patient died during a Sarepta Therapeutics trial of its gene therapy for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.
Disclosed on 18 July, the death was of a 51-year-old non-ambulant patient who developed acute liver failure about 80 days after receiving SRP-9004 in a Phase 1 study. It is the third death from acute liver failure across Sarepta’s AAVrh74-based gene therapies, after two non-ambulatory patients treated with its Duchenne therapy Elevidys. Sarepta said SRP-9004 uses a different dose and manufacturing process, and that the patient had not received Elevidys. The disclosure came alongside FDA action on the company’s gene therapy programme.
Sources:
Sarepta Therapeutics provides statement on Elevidys and its limb-girdle muscular dystrophy programme - Sarepta Therapeutics