Deals, Development and Manufacturing

Genentech is betting up to $2.3 billion on an obesity drug designed to build muscle while cutting fat, addressing a GLP-1 side effect.

The companies are targeting a protein on glioblastoma's treatment-resistant tumor stem cells, which could open a new path past the blood-brain barrier.

Genprex moves its diabetes gene therapy toward the clinic, tapping a CGMP CDMO after preclinical models reversed hyperglycemia in mice.

Spevatamig's fast track status targets a cancer where 5-year survival is under 20%, pairing a novel mechanism with pembrolizumab.

Under the 5-year manufacturing deal, NurExone will access Made Scientific's Princeton, NJ, GMP facility to speed regenerative exosome therapies toward clinical trials.

AWS's AI and cloud tools aim to compress Novo Nordisk's path from drug target to first human dose for chronic disease patients.

The facility aims to scale global biologics supply, supporting patient access to advanced therapies as manufacturing capacity becomes a bottleneck in drug delivery.

Under the deal, Pathos gains ex-China rights and will fund development of the bispecific ADC, already in phase 3 testing for triple-negative breast cancer.

Polpharma Biologics and Fresenius Kabi announced that the FDA and EMA have accepted for review PB016, a proposed biosimilar to Takeda's Entyvio (vedolizumab), with Fresenius Kabi holding exclusive global commercialization rights outside the Middle East and North Africa.

Johnson & Johnson has entered a collaboration and equity investment agreement with Sail Biomedicines to advance in vivo CAR-T therapies for immune-mediated diseases, securing an exclusive option to acquire the company for $2.58 billion.

Carrie Bracco, head of business development, US, Novartis Contract Manufacturing, explains why manufacturing flexibility is becoming as important as capacity for emerging biotechnology companies navigating biopharmaceutical development and contract manufacturing decisions.

argenx will acquire Forte Biosciences for $2.2 billion, which will add first-in-class anti-CD122 antibody, FB102, to its immunology pipeline.

Ipsen has completed its acquisition of Memo Therapeutics, which adds potravitug, an anti-BKPyV antibody, to its rare disease pipeline.

Under the deal, Lonza will grant Engitix a single-target ADC license for SYNtecan E, GlycoConnect, and HydraSpace to advance ECM-targeted fibrosis and cancer therapies.

Halozyme and Incyte will advance subcutaneous INCA033989 for mutCALR-positive MPNs, with the aim of improving treatment delivery while supporting targeted clinical development.

Innovent Biologics and Spero Therapeutics have signed a $1.1 billion licensing deal for IBI355, a phase 2-ready Fc-silent anti-CD40L antibody planned for testing in IgG4-related disease and Sjögren's disease.

The deal, announced at BIO 2026, carries total potential value exceeding $2.5 billion and will use Insilico's Pharma.AI platform to drive target-to-candidate discovery across neuroinflammatory, neurodegenerative, and rare neurological indications.

Takeda will use Boltz biomolecular AI models to support structure prediction, affinity estimation, and molecular design in preclinical research.

The company reported that phase I data show approximately 40% of patients remained cancer-free at 10 years, while 2 phase 2 trials are ongoing.

Made Scientific and Pluristyx will integrate iPSC starting materials with CDMO services for cell therapy development.

CytomX and Regeneron aim to deepen their joint effort to develop protease-activated bispecific immunotherapies designed to improve tumor selectivity and widen the therapeutic window in solid tumors.

Hansa Biopharma’s licensing agreement with SERB will support expanded commercialization of imlifidase (Idefirix) for highly sensitized kidney transplant patients across Europe and MENA.

For ATMP developers, the greatest barrier to commercialization is often not scientific discovery or funding, but the challenge of translating research-stage processes into reproducible, GMP-compliant manufacturing without compromising the therapy itself.

Bristol Myers Squibb and Hengrui Pharma’s strategic collaboration supports development of investigational oncology, hematology, and immunology therapies targeting unmet patient needs.

GSK’s licensing agreement for SiranBio’s ALK7-targeting siRNA candidate expands development efforts aimed at reducing cardiometabolic risk in chronic inflammatory diseases.