March 31, 2026

The need-to-know this morning: Takeover Tuesday!

Eli Lilly is buying Centessa Pharma and Biogen is buying Apellis Pharma.

First, Lilly's deal for Centessa is valued at roughly $6.3 billion or $38 per share, a 38% premium over the company's closing price yesterday.

Centessa is developing drugs called orexin agonists to treat sleeping conditions that leave people struggling to stay awake. The company's lead drug, called cleminorexton or ORX750, has been tested in Phase 2 studies in different types of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia.

Centessa is behind Takeda Pharmaceuticals, which has submitted an orexin agonist for narcolepsy type 1 to regulators for review, and Alkermes, which plans to start at Phase 3 program for its narcolepsy treatment this year.

Read more about the Lilly transaction here.

In this morning's second deal, Biogen is acquiring Apellis for around $5.6 billion, or $41 per share, more than double the latter's closing price yesterday.

With the acquisition, Biogen will get two commercial assets: Syfovre, approved in 2023, specifically treats geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, as well as Empaveli, which treats a rare blood condition and rare kidney diseases.

Read more about the Biogen-Apellis deal here.

biotech

Psychedelic biotechs face scrutiny over YouTube promos

The psychedelics field is at a pivotal moment. Having combatted years of skepticism and stigma, several psychedelic-focused biotechs are now reaching late-stage development and trying to gain a foothold in the broader biopharma industry.

That's why it caught our attention earlier this year when we saw a handful of YouTube accounts had uploaded videos making exaggerated claims about psychedelic drug candidates being developed by Helus Pharma and AtaiBeckley.

The videos said they were paid for by third-party marketing agencies on behalf of the biotechs.

When reached for comment, both companies distanced themselves from the videos. But observers in the field said that, regardless of how aware drugmakers may or may not have been about the promotional strategies, such videos threaten to undermine efforts by the psychedelics field to establish credibility with the public and regulators.

biotech

VCs vying for Chinese assets are now courting scientists

When it comes to leveraging innovation out of China, U.S. venture capital firms are no longer just competing to find commercial or clinical-stage drug candidates; they're moving more upstream, looking at labs and academia to find scientific discoveries before the research is even published.

It's a sign of the growing global interest in Chinese innovation. In the first two months of this year, 41 deals were struck, and the average upfront payment has doubled to $77.7 million, according to data compiled by the South China Morning Post.

Chinese "universities, funded by the government, have less commercial focus and more incentives to do basic research, which can produce [more] novel technologies than privately funded institutions in the U.S.," one VC said.

Read more from STAT contributor Brian Yang.

drug pricing

Doctors Without Borders slams Gilead on rollout of HIV prevention drug

Doctors Without Borders said Gilead has refused to sell its HIV prevention drug lenacapivir directly to humanitarian groups in an "unconscionable" move.

Gilead's drug has been seen as a potential game-changer for global health, after studies showed a single set of injections every six months can offer virtually complete protection from infection.

But the drugmaker has faced repeated criticism over the way it's rolled out the medicine to low- and middle-income countries. The company says it's "committed to ensuring broad, sustainable access to lenacapavir for HIV prevention in high-incidence, resource-limited countries" and "working closely with partners."