In this edition
Monday: Purdue opioid settlement; FDA limits Elevidys; Jazz gastric cancer; J&J buys Halda
Thursday: Abbott buys Exact; US CDC autism; UK lost confidence
Monday 17 November
A US bankruptcy court confirmed Purdue Pharma’s opioid settlement
The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed Purdue’s Chapter 11 plan, ending six years of proceedings and replacing an earlier settlement the US Supreme Court struck down in 2024. This clears $7.4bn to claimants, of which the Sackler family will fund $6.5bn. Purdue is dissolved and its business passes to Knoa Pharma, a public benefit company owned by a non-profit foundation, with a court injunction barring it from marketing opioids and lobbying.
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The FDA restricted Sarepta’s Duchenne gene therapy Elevidys after two teenage deaths from liver failure
The agency approved updated labelling limiting Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvovec) to ambulatory patients 4 and older with a confirmed dystrophin-gene mutation, removing the prior indication for those who can no longer walk. The boxed warning covers serious liver injury, acute liver failure and death. The action follows two fatal cases of acute liver failure in non-ambulatory teenage boys, flagged in June.
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Jazz Pharmaceuticals reported a first-line win for its HER2 drug Ziihera in advanced stomach and oesophageal cancer.
In the Phase 3 HERIZON-GEA-01 trial, Ziihera (zanidatamab), a HER2-targeted bispecific antibody, plus chemotherapy with or without the PD-1 inhibitor tislelizumab, significantly improved progression-free survival against trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in first-line HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. The regimen adding tislelizumab also significantly improved overall survival. Jazz plans a supplemental US filing in H1 2026.
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Positive HERIZON-GEA-01 Phase 3 results support Ziihera in first-line HER2-positive gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma - Jazz Pharmaceuticals
J&J agreed to buy Halda Therapeutics for $3bn, adding an early-stage prostate-cancer drug built on a “hold and kill” mechanism.
The all-cash deal brings J&J the private company’s RIPTAC platform, which makes oral bifunctional small molecules that tether a tumour-survival protein to a target protein to kill cancer cells selectively. The lead candidate, HLD-0915, is a once-daily treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in early trials, with further programmes in breast, lung and other solid tumours.
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Johnson & Johnson set to revolutionize the treatment of cancer with the acquisition of Halda Therapeutics - Johnson & Johnson
Tuesday 18 November
Roche’s oral breast-cancer pill giredestrant became the first of its class to improve outcomes in early-stage disease, its second straight Phase 3 win.
In an interim analysis of the Phase 3 lidERA trial, adjuvant giredestrant, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), significantly improved invasive disease-free survival against standard therapy in oestrogen-receptor-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer. The trial enrolled >4,100 patients with medium- or high-risk stage I-III disease. Roche said it is the first oral SERD to show that benefit in the adjuvant setting, following the drug’s earlier win in metastatic disease at ESMO 2025.
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Wednesday 19 November
Alkermes raised its offer for Avadel to $22.50 a share, seeing off a surprise counterbid from Denmark’s Lundbeck.
Alkermes lifted its bid to $21.00 in cash plus a contingent value right (CVR) worth up to $1.50, tied to US approval of Avadel’s narcolepsy drug Lumryz in idiopathic hypersomnia by the end of 2028, valuing Avadel at up to about $2.4bn. The raise answered an unsolicited Lundbeck proposal of up to $23.00 a share that Avadel’s board had judged likely superior, though it viewed the Lundbeck milestone as unlikely to pay out. Both boards approved the amended terms. Completion: Q1 2026.
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A US congressional commission warned that American dependence on China for the building blocks of medicines is a national-security risk.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission released its 2025 annual report to Congress, with a chapter arguing that heavy reliance on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and key starting materials leaves US drug supply exposed. It recommended Congress require transparency on where ingredients are sourced and fund efforts to reduce dependence, including domestic production. The findings feed the tariff and reshoring debate now shaping pharma investment.
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2025 report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission - U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
Thursday 20 November
Abbott agreed to buy Exact Sciences for about $23bn, its largest acquisition in nearly a decade and the biggest cancer-diagnostics deal on record.
The cash deal at $105.00 a share is an enterprise value of c.$23bn including net debt. It brings Abbott the Cologuard colorectal screening test, the Oncotype DX genomic test and the Oncodetect molecular residual disease (MRD) test, plus blood-based multi-cancer early-detection (MCED) programmes. Exact Sciences is expected to add >$3bn in revenues, taking Abbott diagnostics sales to >$12bn a year. Abbott expects to close in Q2 2026 and plans to push Exact’s products into international markets.
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Abbott to acquire Exact Sciences, a leader in cancer screening and precision oncology diagnostics - Abbott
The US CDC rewrote its vaccine-safety page to call the statement that vaccines do not cause autism “not evidence-based”.
The revised text, which appeared under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., keeps the header “Vaccines do not cause autism” but adds that the claim “is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” The wording contradicts a large body of research finding no such link. Public-health bodies and researchers condemned the change, part of a run of shifts in US vaccine policy.
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A Commons committee chair told the government the life sciences sector had “lost confidence” in it, and pressed for answers before the Budget.
In a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said the sector had “lost confidence in the credibility of successive UK governments to deliver” on the pricing and uptake of new medicines, and called NICE’s processes “needlessly complex.” She asked how US trade talks were bearing on domestic pricing negotiations and what the government would do for the sector in the Budget.
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Government must make urgent changes to restore confidence of UK life sciences sector, Committee warns - House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
Friday 21 November
GE HealthCare agreed to buy medical-imaging software firm Intelerad for about $2.3bn to widen its cloud diagnostics business.
The all-cash deal buys Intelerad from private-equity owner Hg. Its cloud-based radiology and cardiology software reaches into outpatient, teleradiology and hospital settings, extending GE HealthCare beyond its in-hospital imaging base. The company said the purchase would help it triple its cloud-enabled products by 2028 and layer AI on top, with completion expected in H1 2026.
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GE HealthCare to acquire Intelerad, advancing cloud-enabled enterprise imaging across care settings - GE HealthCare
Germany’s Merck KGaA signed an AI drug-discovery pact with Valo Health worth >$3bn to target Parkinson’s disease.
Announced on 20 November, the deal applies Valo’s AI platform, built on >17 million patient records and biobank samples, to find and validate drug targets and generate preclinical compounds for Parkinson’s and related disorders. Merck KGaA will pay an undisclosed upfront sum with milestones taking the total past $3bn, plus royalties and research funding. It is the German group’s second neurology collaboration this year.
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Valo Health announces collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for Parkinson’s disease - Valo Health