Plus our top stories of the week

This Week

May 23, 2025

Novo to part ways with longtime CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, citing weight of market pressures


Pfizer pays 3SBio $1.25B for PD-1xVEGF bispecific, joining red-hot race with BioNTech, Merck


All branded drugs not facing generic, biosimilar competition must abide by MFN order in 'all markets,' HHS tells pharma


FDA lays out stricter COVID vaccine policy in pivot from 'one-size-fits-all' approach


Prime Medicine CEO exits as biotech shelves sole clinical gene therapy, lays off 25% of staff


Regeneron’s $256M bid wins 23andMe bankruptcy auction

 

Featured

Novo to part ways with longtime CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, citing weight of market pressures

Under a mutual agreement with Novo Nordisk's board of directors, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is stepping down from the chief executive post he’s held for the past eight years. Novo didn’t mince words about the rationale behind the decision, pointing to “recent market challenges” and the precipitous decline of the company’s share price “since mid-2024.”
 

Top Stories

Pfizer pays 3SBio $1.25B for PD-1xVEGF bispecific, joining red-hot race with BioNTech, Merck

Pfizer has joined the PD-1xVEGF bispecific gold rush. The Big Pharma is paying 3SBio $1.25 billion upfront for ex-China rights to a clinical candidate, establishing itself as a challenger to BioNTech, Merck & Co. and Summit Therapeutics in a scorching-hot area of immuno-oncology.

All branded drugs not facing generic, biosimilar competition must abide by MFN order in 'all markets,' HHS tells pharma

President Donald Trump's recent Executive Order on drug prices applies to "all brand products across all markets that do not currently have generic or biosimilar competition," the HHS said in a Tuesday press release.

FDA lays out stricter COVID vaccine policy in pivot from 'one-size-fits-all' approach

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., and CBER head Vinay Prasad, M.D., detailed their new approach to COVID vaccines in a Tuesday update. The agency leaders say they're pursuing an "evidence-based approach to COVID-19 vaccination."

Prime Medicine CEO exits as biotech shelves sole clinical gene therapy, lays off 25% of staff

Despite hitting a clinical “milestone,” Prime Medicine is shelving its sole clinical-stage genetic medicine and laying off an undisclosed number of staffers.

Regeneron’s $256M bid wins 23andMe bankruptcy auction

The drugmaker Regeneron has won a bankruptcy auction for 23andMe and its DNA database gathered from some 15 million customers.

'Not game-changing': Boehringer's phase 3 lung data get muted response from analysts

Analysts have given muted reception to Boehringer Ingelheim’s long-awaited phase 3 lung disease data, calling nerandomilast “a step forward but not game-changing.”

Amid US investment push, Lilly eyes Houston as potential home for $5.9B API plant

Eli Lilly is jockeying for a tax break in Texas as it weighs whether to build a $5.9 billion API facility in Houston, according to a state filing. When reached for comment, Lilly did not go into details about the Texas proposal but confirmed it’s related to the broader $27 billion U.S. manufacturing investment the company unveiled in late February.

Scientists ID potential drug target to prevent cancer from spreading to bones

A team of scientists has harnessed CRISPR technology to identify a protein that helps cancers spread to bone tissue, opening the door for potential therapies to prevent the common and painful disease progression.

ViiV Healthcare retakes first place in pharma reputation ranking among US patient groups

Fresh off taking the top spot in an annual survey of how patient groups around the world view major drugmakers, ViiV Healthcare has clinched the No. 1 slot in a U.S.-specific version of the survey, too.
 
Fierce podcasts

Don’t miss an episode

A pulse check on AI adoption in healthcare

Despite all the AI hype, most healthcare organizations are stuck in pilot mode. This week on "Podnosis," Fierce Healthcare Executive Editor Heather Landi explores why so few projects scale and what moving from promise to progress will take.
 

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SpyLock Technology: A cutting-Edge Solution for Rapid Bispecific Antibody Screening

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Best Practice Medical Affairs Organization Study Report

We interviewed 24 Medical Affairs leaders on the critical success factors for building a Best Practice Medical Affairs organization. This report shares what we learned.
 

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