In this edition
Tuesday: Merck-Kelun ADC; GSK oral antibiotic; Moorfields sight implant; Galapagos cell-therapy exit
Wednesday: Takeda-Innovent deal; Hologic take-private; Trump tariff probe
Thursday: Alkermes buys Avadel; Moderna CMV vaccine fails; Ipsen buys ImCheck
Friday: Lilly buys Adverum; Novo board shake-up; FDA returns GSK Blenrep
Monday 20 October
The UK government believes it is close to a drug pricing deal with the White House.
Under the terms being discussed, Britain would pay billions of pounds more for some medicines, and in return the United States would set “low to zero” tariffs on UK pharmaceutical exports, according to the Financial Times. A deal would settle the two questions that have hung over the UK sector this year: what the NHS pays for branded medicines, and how exposed British pharma exports are to US tariffs. No formal agreement had been published by the end of the week.
Sources:
Britain nears drug pricing deal with White House to avert US tariffs - Financial Times
AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo and Gilead each reported first-line wins against triple-negative breast cancer at the ESMO congress in Berlin.
In TROPION-Breast02, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Datroway (datopotamab deruxtecan) extended median overall survival to 23.7 months against 18.7 months for chemotherapy in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer for whom immunotherapy was not an option, a five-month gain, and cut the risk of progression or death by 43%.
Gilead’s Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan), in the ASCENT-03 trial in a similar first-line population ineligible for PD-1 drugs, reduced the risk of progression or death by 38% and lifted median progression-free survival to 9.7 months from 6.9. Triple-negative breast cancer is among the hardest forms of the disease to treat.
Sources:
Datroway demonstrated a five-month median overall survival improvement in 1st-line metastatic TNBC in TROPION-Breast02 - AstraZeneca
Trodelvy reduces risk of progression or death by 38% as first-line therapy in metastatic TNBC in ASCENT-03 - Gilead Sciences
Tuesday 21 October
Merck and its Chinese partner Kelun-Biotech posted two phase 3 wins for their TROP2 antibody-drug conjugate, in lung and breast cancer.
In OptiTROP-Lung04, sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) given on its own nearly doubled median progression-free survival to 8.3 months from 4.3 for chemotherapy in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer that had progressed on a targeted drug, with the results published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In OptiTROP-Breast02, the same drug lifted median progression-free survival to 8.3 months from 4.1 in HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer after CDK4/6 inhibitors and chemotherapy. Both readouts were presented at the ESMO congress.
Sources:
NEJM publishes phase III OptiTROP-Lung04 results for sacituzumab tirumotecan in EGFR-TKI-resistant NSCLC - Kelun-Biotech
Kelun-Biotech presents positive OptiTROP-Breast02 results in HR+/HER2- breast cancer at 2025 ESMO - Kelun-Biotech
GSK and Spero Therapeutics reported phase 3 data showing their oral antibiotic held its own against the intravenous standard in complicated urinary tract infections.
In the PIVOT-PO trial of 1,690 patients, oral tebipenem HBr produced overall success in 58.5% of patients against 60.2% for intravenous imipenem-cilastatin, inside the margin for non-inferiority. The trial was stopped early for efficacy in May. GSK said it plans to file with US regulators in the fourth quarter, and that tebipenem HBr would be the first oral carbapenem antibiotic.
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Blind patients read again after surgeons implanted a photovoltaic microchip beneath the retina, in a trial that included a team at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
The PRIMAvera study of the PRIMA implant, a chip two millimetres square, enrolled 38 people with geographic atrophy from age-related macular degeneration across 17 sites in five countries. Among the 32 who completed a year of follow-up, 26 (81%) had a clinically meaningful improvement in vision, with a mean gain of about 25 letters on a reading chart, more than five lines.
Most serious side effects occurred within two months of surgery and 95% resolved within that time, with no significant loss of peripheral vision. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Sources:
Subretinal Photovoltaic Implant to Restore Vision in Geographic Atrophy Due to AMD - New England Journal of Medicine
Galapagos will wind down its cell therapy business, cutting about 365 jobs and closing five sites, after a sale process drew no viable offers.
The Belgian biotech said the closures cover facilities in Leiden, Basel, Princeton, Pittsburgh and Shanghai. It expects cell therapy operating costs of 100 to 125 million euros from the fourth quarter of 2025 through 2026, plus 150 to 200 million euros of one-time restructuring charges in 2026. Its remaining work, including the TYK2 programme GLPG3667, continues.
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Wednesday 22 October
Takeda agreed to pay Innovent Biologics $1.2bn upfront for rights to two of the Chinese company’s cancer drugs.
The deal covers IBI363, a PD-1/IL-2 bispecific in lung and colorectal cancer, and IBI343, a Claudin18.2 antibody-drug conjugate in gastric and pancreatic cancer, with Takeda taking rights worldwide outside Greater China. The upfront includes a $100m equity investment, and Takeda gains an option on IBI3001, an earlier candidate. Reuters put the total value at up to $11.4bn once milestones are counted.
Sources:
Blackstone and TPG agreed to take Hologic private in a deal worth up to $18.3bn including debt.
The buyers will pay $76 a share in cash plus a contingent value right of up to $3 a share tied to Breast Health revenue over the next two years, valuing the diagnostics and imaging maker at up to $79 a share.
The cash price is about 46% above Hologic’s close on 23 May, the last trading day before reports of a possible deal; Bloomberg had reported the two firms in advanced talks above $75 a share on 17 October. Sovereign funds ADIA and GIC are taking minority stakes, and the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026. Reuters called it the largest medical device acquisition in almost two decades.
Sources:
Hologic to be Acquired by Blackstone and TPG for up to $79 per Share - Hologic
Blackstone, TPG Are Said to Near Deal to Acquire Hologic - Bloomberg
The Trump administration is preparing a trade investigation into whether other countries underpay for medicines, according to the Financial Times.
The probe would run under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a route that can justify tariffs on specific countries, and is separate from the earlier Section 232 national-security inquiry into pharmaceutical imports. The FT reported the move as groundwork for a fresh round of drug tariffs. No formal notice had been published by the end of the week.
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Thursday 23 October
Alkermes agreed to buy Avadel Pharmaceuticals for about $2.1bn, its move into sleep medicine.
Alkermes will pay $18.50 a share in cash plus a contingent value right of up to $1.50 a share that pays out if Avadel’s Lumryz wins FDA approval in idiopathic hypersomnia by the end of 2028. Lumryz, a once-nightly formulation of sodium oxybate, is already approved for narcolepsy. The companies expect the deal, Alkermes’ largest, to close in the first quarter of 2026.
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Moderna is halting development of its mRNA vaccine against congenital cytomegalovirus after it failed a phase 3 trial.
The vaccine, mRNA-1647, did not meet its primary goal of preventing CMV infection in women of childbearing age, with efficacy ranging from 6% to 23% depending on the case definition across roughly 7,500 participants. Moderna will discontinue the congenital CMV programme but will continue a phase 2 study of the vaccine in bone marrow transplant patients. The company said the decision does not change its 2025 financial guidance or its plan to break even in 2028.
Sources:
Ipsen agreed to buy French immuno-oncology biotech ImCheck Therapeutics for up to 1 billion euros.
ImCheck’s shareholders will receive 350 million euros upfront, with the rest tied to regulatory and sales milestones. The lead asset, ICT01, is an antibody targeting BTN3A that activates gamma-delta T cells, in early trials for acute myeloid leukaemia in patients who cannot tolerate intensive chemotherapy. Ipsen expects the deal to close by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
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Friday 24 October
Eli Lilly agreed to buy Adverum Biotechnologies, taking on its phase 3 eye gene therapy as the biotech’s cash ran low.
Lilly will pay $3.56 a share in cash plus contingent value rights worth up to $8.91 a share tied to US approval and sales of Adverum’s lead therapy, for up to $12.47 a share in all.
That therapy, Ixo-vec (ixoberogene soroparvovec), is a single-dose AAV gene therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration, a condition now managed with repeat eye injections. Lilly is advancing up to $65m to Adverum through a secured note to fund trials before the deal closes, which it expects in the fourth quarter.
Sources:
Lilly to Acquire Adverum Biotechnologies - Eli Lilly
Novo Nordisk’s controlling foundation forced a board overhaul that tightens Lars Rebien Sorensen’s grip on the company.
Novo Nordisk said on 21 October it would convene an extraordinary general meeting after its board and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, its majority owner, could not agree on the board’s future shape. Chair Helge Lund, the vice-chair and five independent directors would not stand for re-election, leaving foundation-nominated members in the majority.
Sorensen, a former Novo chief executive who already chairs the foundation, was set to take the company chair as well, the Financial Times reported, concentrating control as Novo tries to win back ground from Eli Lilly in obesity.
Sources:
Novo Nordisk announces an Extraordinary General Meeting to elect new board members - Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk’s Lars Rebien Sorensen tightens grip after board shake-up - Financial Times
The FDA returned GSK’s Blenrep to the US market for multiple myeloma, about two years after it was withdrawn.
The agency approved Blenrep (belantamab mafodotin) in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone for patients whose disease returned after at least two prior lines of treatment, clearing one of the two combinations GSK had proposed.
Approval rested on the phase 3 DREAMM-7 trial, in which the regimen cut the risk of death by 51% and tripled median progression-free survival to 31.3 months from 10.4 against a daratumumab-based comparator. GSK withdrew the drug in the United States in 2022 after a confirmatory trial missed; it returns with a streamlined safety programme.
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