Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. is making a play to take over Soleno Therapeutics Inc. for $53 per share in cash, which works out to an equity value of $2.9 billion. If it goes through, the move will add Vykat XR (diazoxide choline), a first-in-class therapy to treat hyperphagia, the defining feature of Prader-Willi syndrome, to San Diego-based Neurocrine’s hopper. Since its U.S. FDA clearance and the launch in the second quarter of last year, Vykat has generated $190 million in 2025 revenue, including $92 million for Soleno, of Redwood City, Calif., in the fourth quarter alone. Shares of Soleno (NASDAQ:SLNO) were trading at $52.20, up $12.71, or 32%. Neurocrine’s stock (NASDAQ:NBIX) was selling for $129.38, down $2.22.

Sector tariff now more than a threat – for some Rx companies

After nearly a year of threats and promises of a global biopharma tariff of 25% to 500%, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered it late last week. In the name of national security, he imposed a 100% sector tariff on prescription drugs and their associated ingredients beginning in about four months for large manufacturers and six months for smaller companies. However, depending on the drug, where it’s made and whether a manufacturer has reached onshoring and pricing agreements with the Department of Health and Human Services, the actual tariff could be as low as 0%. Regardless, the timing could hardly be worse.

Stipple launches with $100M for novel oncology targets

Stipple Bio Inc. raised $100 million in a series A financing co-led by RA Capital, a16z Bio+Health and Nextech Invest. The company was founded by Aaron Ring at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and Aashish Manglik at University of California, San Francisco, to identify novel epitopes expressed on tumor cells with limited expression on healthy tissue. Rather than focusing on targets that are over-expressed, Stipple’s Pointillist platform looks for post-translational modifications, protein conformation changes or mis-location of proteins that lead to epitopes that are specific to cancer cells. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company expects to have its lead drug, STP-100, an antibody-drug conjugate that binds an undisclosed target, in the clinic in early 2027.

Circuit split forming over state 340B laws

Do state laws requiring drug companies to give steep 340B drug discounts to an unlimited number of contract pharmacies, with no claims data required, interfere with a longstanding contract between the U.S. Congress and biopharma? Or do such laws merely flex states’ authority over pharmacy practices such as delivery? Those questions are at the heart of a new circuit split, which could eventually take the dispute to the Supreme Court.

One-carbon has new approach to starving tumors of nucleotides

Swedish startup One-carbon Therapeutics AB is going after solid tumors with an approach that looks similar to synthetic lethals to some people, and to chemotherapy to others. But One-carbon CEO Ana Slipicevic said that TH-9619, the company’s first-in-class inhibitor of the enzyme MTHFD1/2, is neither of those things. Slipicevic told BioWorld that there are some similarities to the synthetic lethal approach, in that TH-9619 targets a pathway that cancer cells are uniquely vulnerable to, and works in part by preventing them from repairing their DNA. Another similarity is that like PARP inhibitors, which are the icon of synthetic lethal targeting, MTHFD1/2 inhibition originated in the lab of Thomas Helleday. “We are a spin-off from Karolinska [Institute], and [MTHFD inhibition] went through a lot of early work in academia before we took over,” Slipicevic said.

Biopharma financings nearly double vs. 2025 to $25.1B

Total biopharma financings reached $25.14 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026, nearly doubling the $13.12 billion in Q1 2025. The early 2026 total comes in above the $13.19 billion recorded in 2023 and $13.66 billion in 2022, though it remains below the $38.27 billion during the same period in 2021 and $47.25 billion in 2024.

Holiday notice

BioWorld's offices were closed in observance of Good Friday. No issue was published April 3.

Also in the news

Adagene, Akebia, Alto, Arcellx, Arch, Astrazeneca, Axsome, Beam, Boston Scientific, BSM, Celldex, Clarametyx, Cocrystal, Context, Coya, Curve, Eli Lilly, Ellipsys Medical, Entera, Fore, Gilead, Harmony, Hoth, Immunovant, Incyte, Inovio, Lipocine, Lupin, MDIC, Merck, Neutrolis, Novo Nordisk, Oncotelic, Orionis, Pangia, Pavmed, Puretech, Seaport, Shionogi, Soligenix, Stairmed, Tanabe, Techforce Robotics, Telix, Tenpoint, Ultragenyx, Valencia, Vascarta, Visufarma, Zeto