February 9, 2026

The need-to-know this morning

Eli Lilly said it will acquire Orna Therapeutics, a privately held developer of in-vivo CAR-T therapies, for up to $2.4 billion.
Lilly also struck a research collaboration with China's Innovent Biologics to co-develop drugs for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

glp-1 drugs

Novo sues Hims, as regulators step up scrutiny

Novo Nordisk said this morning that it has filed suit against Hims & Hers, accusing the telehealth company of illegally mass marketing unapproved, compounded knockoff versions of Wegovy and Ozempic. The Danish drugmaker claims Hims is putting patients at risk, just as U.S. regulators are simultaneously escalating their scrutiny of the company.

Novo's lawsuit, paired with warnings from the FDA and a request from HHS for the Justice Department to investigate Hims, follows the company's brief launch of a $49 compounded semaglutide pill. The move drew sharp backlash from Novo and raised safety and patent concerns given the complexity of making an effective oral GLP-1 drug. Facing mounting regulatory pressure, Hims said it would stop selling the compounded pill, underscoring intensifying tensions between drugmakers, compounders, and federal regulators over where cost-cutting ends and illegal, unsafe drug copying begins.

drug pricing

TrumpRx isn't undercutting many generics on price

President Trump has billed his new TrumpRx website as offering the world's cheapest prices on 43 brand-name drugs, but a STAT analysis shows that roughly half already have far cheaper generic equivalents available elsewhere.

TrumpRx, which displays cash-pay prices rather than selling drugs directly, highlights steep discounts off list prices, yet at least 18 of the listed brand-name drugs can cost hundreds of dollars less when purchased as generics through platforms like GoodRx or Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs.

"They added a bunch of brands that have generics. So we beat them there. Usually by a lot," Cuban wrote on X. But he added: "I just want lower drug and healthcare prices. This was a positive step forward."

While some deals — notably for fertility drugs and certain high-cost branded medicines — do represent substantial savings, there is concern that promoting brand-name discounts without clearly flagging generic options could steer patients away from much cheaper choices.

markets

Signs the biotech IPO window's cracking open

After years in the doldrums, the biotech IPO market is showing signs of life, with four companies — Agomab Therapeutics, Eikon Therapeutics, Spyglass Pharma, and Veradermics — going public last week and raising nearly $1 billion combined. A fifth company, Generate Biomedicines, has also filed for an IPO.

The offerings are sparking hope, STAT's Allison DeAngelis writes, after a seemingly endless biotech slump driven by weak stock performance, regulatory uncertainty, and investor fatigue with the cost and risk of drug development. There were just 11 biotech IPOs last year — the fewest in 15 years.

Eikon's IPO has been of particular interest given that it's a platform company led by former Merck R&D chief Roger Perlmutter.

layoffs

ARPA-H trims staff amid leadership reset

ARPA-H, the Biden-era biomedical "moonshot" agency, laid off roughly 20 employees and contractors last week in cuts that largely targeted operations and technology commercialization staff. That said, this downsizing left scientific programs intact, people familiar with the matter told STAT's Jason Mast.

The move, confirmed by HHS, comes four months after DARPA alum Alicia Jackson took over as director — following a turbulent leadership transition that saw the agency's founding chief pushed out.

HHS framed the layoffs as a refocusing effort to better align staffing with ARPA-H's research mission, as Jackson launches a new strategy centered on pediatric cancer, aging, and maintaining U.S. competitiveness with China.

More around STAT