What do a patent dispute over a CRISPR/Cas system, a rejected whistleblower case involving lab tests and a vaccine injury claim parading as multidistrict tort litigation have in common? All three were denied cert in the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest orders list.
Only a few months after reporting what it called “unprecedented” phase I data for its BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor in chronic myeloid leukemia, Terns Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed to an acquisition by Merck & Co. Inc. valued at about $6.7 billion. For Terns, the deal validates the decision last year to switch focus from its metabolic pipeline to oncology and, for Merck, it’s the latest move as the big pharma looks to shore up its offerings ahead of patent expirations for cancer blockbuster drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab).
For a company founded only four years ago, Quotient Therapeutics Inc. entered its third major deal, this time with Merck & Co. Inc. to find novel drug targets for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) using its somatic genomics platform technology.
Mestag Therapeutics Ltd. has raised a $40 million round from existing investors as it completes final preparations for its lead program MST-0312 to enter clinical development in mid-2026. MST-0312 is a bispecific antibody aimed at the lymphotoxin-β receptor (LTBR), which is essential for the development of lymphoid tissues.
U.K. biopharma is working with the country’s space agency and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to plot a route for manufacturing biologic drugs in low earth orbit.
Stryker Corp. is scrambling to recover from a cyberattack that’s disrupting its global network and being claimed by pro-Iranian hackers. “At this time, there is no indication of malware or ransomware, and we believe the situation is contained to our internal Microsoft environment only,” the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based med-tech company said March 12.
Twelve years on from the World Health Organization formally raising the alarm, antimicrobial resistance continues to grow, and despite numerous public and private incentives and initiatives, the pipeline of antibiotics in development is thinner than ever.
Oddsmakers wasted no time figuring the market chances after Merck & Co. Inc. rolled out data from the phase III Litespark-011 study testing its oral hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2α) inhibitor, Welireg (belzutifan), when used with tyrosine kinase inhibitor Lenvima (lenvatinib, Eisai Co.) in advanced renal cell carcinoma.
At Biocom’s Global Partnering and Investor Conference, representatives from the business development departments at various pharmaceutical companies provided an update on their appetites for deals. The mood was fairly upbeat because, let’s face it, large pharma has become dependent on external development.
Infectious disease-focused biopharma companies continued their rebound into year-end, with the BioWorld Infectious Disease Index finishing 2025 up 68.55% after standing at a collective 28.98% at the end of October. The rally underscores a sharp reversal from earlier in the year, when the index had declined 17.83% by the end of April before recovering to a 4.34% gain by July.