BioCentury This Week

The past week has delivered the largest M&A deal ever for a private, venture-backed biopharma, the second-largest follow-on ever for a NASDAQ-traded biotech and what could soon become the largest biotech IPO ever on NASDAQ. On the latest BioCentury This Week, BioCentury’s analysts discuss Eli Lilly's $3.25 billion takeout of in vivo CAR T company Kelonia, the market debut by obesity play Kailera and an upsized follow-on by Revolution on the back of its pancreatic cancer data.
The analysts also discuss how autoimmune T cell engagers are diverging from their oncology roots and the potential implications of President Donald Trump’s executive order on psychedelic therapies. BioCentury’s analysts also take time to remember Sofinnova Partners’ Denis Lucquin, father of French biotech. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was brought to you by IQVIA Biotech.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659183

#BiotechMA #BiotechIPO #CART #TCellEngagers #PsychedelicMedicine

00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech
04:20 - Lilly's Kelonia Buy
10:31 - T Cell Engagers
23:07 - Psychedelics Executive Order
35:14 - CBER Director Search
37:37 - Public Markets Roundup
42:14 - Remembering Denis Lucquin

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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A pathway proposed by FDA to cut the time it takes biopharma companies to get to first-in-human trials is more ambitious than similar policies in Australia, China and the U.K. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts assess the proposal, as well as a concession for the biopharma industry on first-in-human studies in PDUFA reauthorization negotiations with FDA.
The analysts also discuss the latest pair of billion-dollar biotech deals: Gilead's $3.2 billion takeout of antibody-drug conjugate company Tubulis and the acquisition of Soleno by Neurocrine for $2.9 billion for its Prader-Willi asset. Finally, BioCentury’s analysts discuss the new $6.3 billion Blackstone Life Sciences fund and the €1 billion vehicle unveiled last week by European VC Jeito Capital. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was brought to you by IQVIA Biotech.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659127

#FDA #FirstInHuman #BiotechMergers #BiotechInvesting #LifeSciencesVC

00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech
03:24 - FDA First-in-Human
11:44 - America First PDUFA Policy
17:43 - Gilead Buying Tubulis
23:41 - Blackstone's New Fund
28:37 - Jeito Capital
30:44 - Parker Institute

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Biotech has been resilient as the financial markets teeter under global volatility. For now, M&A and financings, if not IPOs, are continuing, but will the Mideast conflict halt biotech’s recovery? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s Stephen Hansen breaks down the near-term and long-term outlook for a biotech industry hoping to continue the growth of 2H25.
BioCentury’s analysts also discuss the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on the biopharma industry and last week’s biggest deals: the pending $6.3 billion takeout of Centessa  by Eli Lilly and the proposed $5.6 billion acquisition of Apellis by Biogen. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was brought to you by IQVIA Biotech.

Register now as a delegate or apply to join the 2026 Presenting Company Class before the 26th Bio€quity Europe May 4-6 in Prague sells out.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659040

#BiotechMarkets #BiotechMA #GlobalVolatility #DrugPricingPolicy #BiopharmaStrategy

00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech
05:09 - 2Q26 Preview
17:09 - Pharma Tariffs
24:04 - C-Path Initiative
26:32 - Lilly Deal
32:19 - Biogen Deal

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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Biotech innovators around the world are finding speed to be the driver for investment and partnering — speed to early human data and speed to de-risk assets. The new momentum from Asia, in particular China, has added a fresh challenge for European biotech on top of falling equity and R&D investment in Europe and a complex drug pricing landscape. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast on the eve of the 26th Bio€quity Europe conference, EQT Life Sciences' Christoph Broja and Prague Bio CEO Petra Kinzlová join BioCentury’s analysts to discuss the challenges faced by European biotech today and what the best strategy is to compete in this new era.

Kinzlová also describes a growing biotech ecosystem in the Czech Republic, which will host Bio€quity Europe May 4-6.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659002

#EuropeanBiotech #ClinicalDevelopmentSpeed #ChinaBiotech #DrugPricing #BiotechInvestment

01:10 - Bio€quity Europe Preview
04:32 - Czech Innovation Hubs
09:52 - Pricing, Trials, Funding
13:07 - Fixing Trial Bottlenecks
17:49 - Pension Capital and Risk

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A flurry of deals, several with sizable upfront payments, has energized the biotech sector in March. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s Paul Bonanos assesses last week’s deals by Merck, which is laying out $6.7 billion to acquire Terns, and Gilead, which is buying Ouro for about $1.7 billion up front.
Gilead’s deal comes as the Foster City, Calif.-based biotech is looking to defend its position in HIV while resetting in inflammation and immunology and growing its oncology footprint through business development. BioCentury’s Lauren Martz analyzes the company’s pipeline following her recent conversation with CMO Dietmar Berger.
Turning to the U.K., Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn details her conversation with CEO of MHRA, Lawrence Tallon, regarding what new reforms in the U.K. mean for drug developers and how he views initiatives helping to build the sector and place the U.K. in the race to become a destination for clinical trials.

Rates for the 26th Bio€quity Europe May 4-6 in Prague increase after this week. Register now as a delegate or apply to join the 2026 Presenting Company Class before the conference sells out.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658974

#BiotechMA #BiopharmaStrategy #DrugDevelopment #UKBiotech #ClinicalTrials

00:00 - Introduction
01:09 - Merck Buying Terns
04:31 - Gilead, Galapagos Deal
09:35 - Growing Gilead
19:20 - Tallon's Vision for U.K. Biotech

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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After 20 years of platform building and resets, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals is making a bid to become a large-cap biotech. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss how the company has built a pipeline and set of enabling technologies that could enable a steep period of value creation based on RNAi.
The team then analyzes the $2 billion deal between Synnovation and Novartis for a pan-mutant-selective PI3Kα inhibitor. The analysts also assess where AI is integrating into the biotech venture funnel and provide insights into ultra-rare disease advocacy, FDA’s search for a successor to CBER Director Vinay Prasad, and the Trump administration’s most-favored nation (MFN) drug pricing policy.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658892

#RNAiTherapeutics #BiotechMA #PI3KAlpha #AIDrugDiscovery #DrugPricingPolicy

00:00 - Introduction
01:14 - Bio€quity Europe
05:33 - Arrowhead
16:49 - Synnovation Novartis
20:00 - AI in Biotech Venture
27:07 - Rare Disease Advocacy
31:22 - MFN Pricing Policy

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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Biotechs have been pricing follow-ons at a steady pace, with some companies parlaying data into upsized deals, and others even beginning to debut on NASDAQ — but will geopolitical tensions and war in the Middle East scuttle the forward momentum? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts take the temperature of the markets for biotech."
They also discuss last week’s late-stage epilepsy data from Xenon Pharmaceuticals, which revived the biotech’s stock and the Kv7 target.
And, in a Rare Disease Spotlight, BioCentury’s analysts discuss how Friedreich ataxia is moving into a mechanistic second act, with biotechs pivoting from stabilizing the mitochondrial damage caused by frataxin loss to developing therapies designed to fix the gene itself.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658810

#BiotechMarkets #EpilepsyResearch #Kv7 #RareDisease #GeneTherapy

00:00 - Introduction
03:23 - Market Sentiment
09:58 - Xenon Phase III Win
18:03 - Friedreich Ataxia Pipeline

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Biotechs in South Korea and other regions of Asia outside of China need to lean into innovation to distinguish themselves from their Chinese counterparts. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts are joined by industry guests Ya-Ting Lei and Luther (Ruizhe) Zhao to discuss why the best path for biotechs in Korea and Japan is to lean into target, biology and modality risk, as well as other takeaways from the fifth BioCentury-BayHelix Biopharma Summit, which ran March 9-12 in Seoul and Daejeon, South Korea.
Lei is director of BD Asia at Merck KGaA, and Zhao is VP, China clinical analytics at Caidya.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658776

#AsiaBiotech #SouthKoreaBiotech #BiopharmaSummit #BiotechInnovation #DrugDevelopmentStrategy

00:00 - Introduction
02:32 - Key Takeaways
05:46 - Faster Trials, Better Data
08:19 - Global Diligence, Local Success
15:13 - Cross Border Synergies
17:34 - Korean Biotech

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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The second ousting of Vinay Prasad from FDA in the past eight months won’t lead to major changes at the agency, other than selecting a successor tasked with keeping FDA out of the news ahead of the coming midterm elections. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, Washington editor Steve Usdin lays out why the former CBER director was pushed out at FDA and what’s next for the agency following his departure.
BioCentury’s editors also discuss the next wave of therapies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, including whether new candidates might go beyond slowing disease to halt or even reverse progression, the biological complexity that makes fibrosis so challenging, and what the 20-plus Phase II programs could teach the field about fibrosis biology.
Also up for discussion were recent clinical wins — as well as more complicated readouts — from psychedelic therapies; plus the latest data updates from obesity treatments, with a focus on amylin agonists.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658698

#FDA #IdiopathicPulmonaryFibrosis #PsychedelicTherapies #ObesityDrugs #AmylinAgonists

00:00 - Introduction
01:56 - Prasad's Departure
15:27 - Fibrosis Therapies
23:35 - Psychedelics Clinical Catalysts
28:24 - Obesity Updates

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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Can a strong U.S. biopharma industry be reconciled with the successful emergence of China? And can China be a catalyst of positive change across the global industry, even if this implies some level of rebalancing away from the U.S.? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss a Guest Commentary by McKinsey Senior Partner Emeritus Franck Le Deu, who argues that a multipolar biopharma world in which the U.S. continues to thrive even as China becomes meaningfully stronger can emerge.
The analysts also discuss BioCentury’s latest Rare Disease Spotlight, which focuses on a wave of therapies aiming to activate retinal function in Stargardt disease patients.
Turning to FDA, BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin discusses recent public statements by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, questions about Vinay Prasad’s future, and the plausible mechanism pathway.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658606

 #GlobalBiopharma #ChinaBiotech #RareDisease #StargardtDisease #FDAPolicy 

00:00 - Introduction
02:47 - Multipolar Biopharma World
13:39 - Rare Disease Spotlight
25:15 - Makary Remarks
31:14 - Plausible Mechanism Framework

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected].

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