Biopharma financings totaled $16.78 billion in the first two months of 2026, about an 81% year-over-year rise from $9.28 billion in January to February 2025. While still below the outsized $33.29 billion recorded in the same period of 2024, and $24.37 billion in 2021, the early 2026 total significantly outpaces the more subdued levels seen in 2022 ($7.48 billion) and 2023 ($7.66 billion).

The OX40-targeting mechanism pursued by drug developers around the world found itself shadowed March 3 when Kyowa Kirin Co. Ltd. gave up work with rocatinlimab, a monoclonal antibody for which hopes had risen in moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, prurigo nodularis and moderate to severe asthma.

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.

The U.S. FDA clearance Feb. 20 of East Windsor, N.J.-based Acrotech Biopharma Inc.’s PDE4 inhibitor Adquey (difamilast ointment 1%) for mild to moderate atopic dermatitis brought renewed focus on the mechanism, where other drugs are already approved and more are stocking developers’ pipelines across indications.

BioWorld tracked 144 clinical trial readouts across phases I through III in January 2026, down from 215 in December. January included 15 phase III trials reporting positive results and three that failed to meet key endpoints. By phase, the month’s updates consisted of 60 from phase I, 44 from phase II and 40 from phase III.