Novartis AG’s financial update included good news about Scemblix (asciminib), the first and only U.S. FDA-approved allosteric inhibitor for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), which gained clearance in October 2021. The drug introduced a new mechanism of action by specifically targeting the ABL myristoyl pocket.

Nonprofit dealmaking in biopharma has been limited in 2025, with total disclosed value reaching just $99.7 million through July. Nearly all of that came in January, when deals totaled $96.9 million. After a quiet first quarter, modest activity resumed with $1.4 million in April and $1.6 million in July, while the other months saw no reported nonprofit partnerships.

While U.S. President Donald Trump’s country-by-country reciprocal and newly negotiated tariffs go into effect today, a separate, global biopharma sector tariff of, possibly, 200% continues to loom over the sector. For many stakeholders, a biopharma sector tariff of even 25%, as first proposed by Trump, would be a disaster in the making, especially when combined with the pressures of Medicare price negotiations and the president’s escalation of most-favored-nation pricing.

At the 2025 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), one of the bigger splashes was made by a cardiovascular drug.

The BioWorld Drug Developers Index (BDDI) rebounded in the second quarter, ending the first half (H1) of 2025 up 1.23% after being down 7.36% at the end of March and 5.52% at April’s close. The BDDI continued to track just below the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gained 3.64% in H1, and outperformed the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index, which ended June down 1.92%.

At the 2025 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), one of the bigger splashes was made by a cardiovascular drug. In a presentation on July 30, Newamsterdam Pharma Co. NV presented data showing that its cholesterol drug obicetrapib lowered levels of the Alzheimer’s Disease biomarker p-tau217.