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.
At Biocom’s Global Partnering and Investor Conference, venture capitalists (VCs) on multiple panels offered their thoughts on the state of venture investing and offered advice for startups interested in securing funding. Sentiment for early stage investment was somewhat mixed, but trended negative as VCs acknowledged that it’s a tough environment in which to raise capital.
Gilead Sciences Inc. is acquiring partner Arcellx Inc. at a value of up to $7.8 billion, consisting of $115 per share up front and a potential payment of $5 per share through a contingent value right.
At a pair of panels on developing and selling drugs in Europe at the Biotech Showcase 2026 meeting in San Francisco, experts discussed the good, the bad and the ugly parts of the European drug development scene.
At the Biotech Showcase 2026 – part of the broader hoopla in San Francisco surrounding the J.P. Morgan 2026 Healthcare Conference – a panel of investors and another of pharma dealmakers discussed what to expect from drug company deals in 2026. The calendar flipping marks a good time to look ahead, but the delineation doesn’t really change anything for dealmakers who have experienced a slow shift in attitudes of investors over the last few months that will likely continue into the year ahead.
It was a battle of the companies with drugs for transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis on the first day of the J.P. Morgan 2026 Healthcare Conference with Alnylam Inc., Bridgebio Pharma Inc. and Pfizer Inc. all presenting at the annual kickoff conference. One company disclosed 2025 sales as well as 2026 revenue guidance, the second only looked back, while the third was too big to do either for a specific drug.
December 2025 was a big month for announcements from Psithera Inc. The Watertown, Mass.-based newco announced its name change from Psivant Therapeutics, having come out from under the Roivant Sciences Ltd. umbrella – thus the dropping of the “-vant” name. The company also announced a $47.5 million series A financing and disclosed that Eric Shaff had started as the company’s new president and CEO.
December 2025 was a big month for announcements from Psithera Inc. The Watertown, Mass.-based newco announced its name change from Psivant Therapeutics, having come out from under the Roivant Sciences Ltd. umbrella – thus the dropping of the “-vant” name. The company also announced a $47.5 million series A financing and disclosed that Eric Shaff had started as the company’s new president and CEO.
Wife-and-husband team, J. Jean Cui and Y. Peter Li, launched Blossomhill Therapeutics Inc. in mid-2020 to focus on next-generation, macrocyclic inhibitors against oncology targets. The couple had planned to take some time off to rest and do a little traveling, but then the pandemic hit. “This was a great time [to start a new company],” Cui told BioWorld. “Nothing to do but reading and thinking.”
Addition Therapeutics came out of stealth mode to highlight its Precise RNA-Mediated Insertion of Transgenes (PRINT) gene therapy platform. The system is based on research of retrotransposons by Kathleen Collins’ laboratory at University of California, Berkeley, that was spun out into Addition in 2021.
