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Bispecific antibodies and dual-payload antibody-drug conjugates were in the spotlight at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Diego as biotechs unveiled their latest preclinical and first-in-human oncology data. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, IQVIA Biotech CMO James Kyle Bryan joins BioCentury’s analysts to discuss what AACR revealed about modalities gaining traction, plus shares his perspective on de-risking clinical development and eliminating the “white space” that delays biotechs’ timelines in the clinic. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was brought to you by IQVIA Biotech. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659235 #AACR #BispecificAntibodies #ADC #OncologyData #ClinicalDevelopment  00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 01:43 – AACR Early Signals 05:17 – Antibody Innovation 09:22 – Dual Payload ADCs 13:48 – De-Risking Drug Development 19:16 – Looking Ahead to ASCO To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

The past week has delivered the largest M&A deal ever for a private, venture-backed biopharma, the second-largest follow-on ever for a NASDAQ-traded biotech and what could soon become the largest biotech IPO ever on NASDAQ. On the latest BioCentury This Week, BioCentury’s analysts discuss Eli Lilly's $3.25 billion takeout of in vivo CAR T company Kelonia, the market debut by obesity play Kailera and an upsized follow-on by Revolution on the back of its pancreatic cancer data. The analysts also discuss how autoimmune T cell engagers are diverging from their oncology roots and the potential implications of President Donald Trump’s executive order on psychedelic therapies. BioCentury’s analysts also take time to remember Sofinnova Partners’ Denis Lucquin, father of French biotech. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was brought to you by IQVIA Biotech. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659183 #BiotechMA #BiotechIPO #CART #TCellEngagers #PsychedelicMedicine 00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 04:20 - Lilly's Kelonia Buy 10:31 - T Cell Engagers 23:07 - Psychedelics Executive Order 35:14 - CBER Director Search 37:37 - Public Markets Roundup 42:14 - Remembering Denis Lucquin To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

A pathway proposed by FDA to cut the time it takes biopharma companies to get to first-in-human trials is more ambitious than similar policies in Australia, China and the U.K. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts assess the proposal, as well as a concession for the biopharma industry on first-in-human studies in PDUFA reauthorization negotiations with FDA. The analysts also discuss the latest pair of billion-dollar biotech deals: Gilead's $3.2 billion takeout of antibody-drug conjugate company Tubulis and the acquisition of Soleno by Neurocrine for $2.9 billion for its Prader-Willi asset. Finally, BioCentury’s analysts discuss the new $6.3 billion Blackstone Life Sciences fund and the €1 billion vehicle unveiled last week by European VC Jeito Capital. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was brought to you by IQVIA Biotech. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659127 #FDA #FirstInHuman #BiotechMergers #BiotechInvesting #LifeSciencesVC 00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 03:24 - FDA First-in-Human 11:44 - America First PDUFA Policy 17:43 - Gilead Buying Tubulis 23:41 - Blackstone's New Fund 28:37 - Jeito Capital 30:44 - Parker Institute To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

Biotech has been resilient as the financial markets teeter under global volatility. For now, M&A and financings, if not IPOs, are continuing, but will the Mideast conflict halt biotech’s recovery? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s Stephen Hansen breaks down the near-term and long-term outlook for a biotech industry hoping to continue the growth of 2H25. BioCentury’s analysts also discuss the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on the biopharma industry and last week’s biggest deals: the pending $6.3 billion takeout of Centessa  by Eli Lilly and the proposed $5.6 billion acquisition of Apellis by Biogen. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast was brought to you by IQVIA Biotech. Register now as a delegate or apply to join the 2026 Presenting Company Class before the 26th Bio€quity Europe May 4-6 in Prague sells out. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659040 #BiotechMarkets #BiotechMA #GlobalVolatility #DrugPricingPolicy #BiopharmaStrategy 00:01 - Sponsor Message: IQVIA Biotech 05:09 - 2Q26 Preview 17:09 - Pharma Tariffs 24:04 - C-Path Initiative 26:32 - Lilly Deal 32:19 - Biogen Deal To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

Biotech innovators around the world are finding speed to be the driver for investment and partnering — speed to early human data and speed to de-risk assets. The new momentum from Asia, in particular China, has added a fresh challenge for European biotech on top of falling equity and R&D investment in Europe and a complex drug pricing landscape. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast on the eve of the 26th Bio€quity Europe conference, EQT Life Sciences' Christoph Broja and Prague Bio CEO Petra Kinzlová join BioCentury’s analysts to discuss the challenges faced by European biotech today and what the best strategy is to compete in this new era. Kinzlová also describes a growing biotech ecosystem in the Czech Republic, which will host Bio€quity Europe May 4-6. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659002 #EuropeanBiotech #ClinicalDevelopmentSpeed #ChinaBiotech #DrugPricing #BiotechInvestment 01:10 - Bio€quity Europe Preview 04:32 - Czech Innovation Hubs 09:52 - Pricing, Trials, Funding 13:07 - Fixing Trial Bottlenecks 17:49 - Pension Capital and Risk To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

A flurry of deals, several with sizable upfront payments, has energized the biotech sector in March. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s Paul Bonanos assesses last week’s deals by Merck, which is laying out $6.7 billion to acquire Terns, and Gilead, which is buying Ouro for about $1.7 billion up front. Gilead’s deal comes as the Foster City, Calif.-based biotech is looking to defend its position in HIV while resetting in inflammation and immunology and growing its oncology footprint through business development. BioCentury’s Lauren Martz analyzes the company’s pipeline following her recent conversation with CMO Dietmar Berger. Turning to the U.K., Editor in Chief Simone Fishburn details her conversation with CEO of MHRA, Lawrence Tallon, regarding what new reforms in the U.K. mean for drug developers and how he views initiatives helping to build the sector and place the U.K. in the race to become a destination for clinical trials. Rates for the 26th Bio€quity Europe May 4-6 in Prague increase after this week. Register now as a delegate or apply to join the 2026 Presenting Company Class before the conference sells out. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658974 #BiotechMA #BiopharmaStrategy #DrugDevelopment #UKBiotech #ClinicalTrials 00:00 - Introduction 01:09 - Merck Buying Terns 04:31 - Gilead, Galapagos Deal 09:35 - Growing Gilead 19:20 - Tallon's Vision for U.K. Biotech To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

After 20 years of platform building and resets, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals is making a bid to become a large-cap biotech. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss how the company has built a pipeline and set of enabling technologies that could enable a steep period of value creation based on RNAi. The team then analyzes the $2 billion deal between Synnovation and Novartis for a pan-mutant-selective PI3Kα inhibitor. The analysts also assess where AI is integrating into the biotech venture funnel and provide insights into ultra-rare disease advocacy, FDA’s search for a successor to CBER Director Vinay Prasad, and the Trump administration’s most-favored nation (MFN) drug pricing policy. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658892 #RNAiTherapeutics #BiotechMA #PI3KAlpha #AIDrugDiscovery #DrugPricingPolicy 00:00 - Introduction 01:14 - Bio€quity Europe 05:33 - Arrowhead 16:49 - Synnovation Novartis 20:00 - AI in Biotech Venture 27:07 - Rare Disease Advocacy 31:22 - MFN Pricing Policy To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

Biotechs have been pricing follow-ons at a steady pace, with some companies parlaying data into upsized deals, and others even beginning to debut on NASDAQ — but will geopolitical tensions and war in the Middle East scuttle the forward momentum? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts take the temperature of the markets for biotech." They also discuss last week’s late-stage epilepsy data from Xenon Pharmaceuticals, which revived the biotech’s stock and the Kv7 target. And, in a Rare Disease Spotlight, BioCentury’s analysts discuss how Friedreich ataxia is moving into a mechanistic second act, with biotechs pivoting from stabilizing the mitochondrial damage caused by frataxin loss to developing therapies designed to fix the gene itself. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658810 #BiotechMarkets #EpilepsyResearch #Kv7 #RareDisease #GeneTherapy 00:00 - Introduction 03:23 - Market Sentiment 09:58 - Xenon Phase III Win 18:03 - Friedreich Ataxia Pipeline To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

Biotechs in South Korea and other regions of Asia outside of China need to lean into innovation to distinguish themselves from their Chinese counterparts. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts are joined by industry guests Ya-Ting Lei and Luther (Ruizhe) Zhao to discuss why the best path for biotechs in Korea and Japan is to lean into target, biology and modality risk, as well as other takeaways from the fifth BioCentury-BayHelix Biopharma Summit, which ran March 9-12 in Seoul and Daejeon, South Korea. Lei is director of BD Asia at Merck KGaA, and Zhao is VP, China clinical analytics at Caidya. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658776 #AsiaBiotech #SouthKoreaBiotech #BiopharmaSummit #BiotechInnovation #DrugDevelopmentStrategy 00:00 - Introduction 02:32 - Key Takeaways 05:46 - Faster Trials, Better Data 08:19 - Global Diligence, Local Success 15:13 - Cross Border Synergies 17:34 - Korean Biotech To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

The second ousting of Vinay Prasad from FDA in the past eight months won’t lead to major changes at the agency, other than selecting a successor tasked with keeping FDA out of the news ahead of the coming midterm elections. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, Washington editor Steve Usdin lays out why the former CBER director was pushed out at FDA and what’s next for the agency following his departure. BioCentury’s editors also discuss the next wave of therapies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, including whether new candidates might go beyond slowing disease to halt or even reverse progression, the biological complexity that makes fibrosis so challenging, and what the 20-plus Phase II programs could teach the field about fibrosis biology. Also up for discussion were recent clinical wins — as well as more complicated readouts — from psychedelic therapies; plus the latest data updates from obesity treatments, with a focus on amylin agonists. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658698 #FDA #IdiopathicPulmonaryFibrosis #PsychedelicTherapies #ObesityDrugs #AmylinAgonists 00:00 - Introduction 01:56 - Prasad's Departure 15:27 - Fibrosis Therapies 23:35 - Psychedelics Clinical Catalysts 28:24 - Obesity Updates To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

Can a strong U.S. biopharma industry be reconciled with the successful emergence of China? And can China be a catalyst of positive change across the global industry, even if this implies some level of rebalancing away from the U.S.? On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss a Guest Commentary by McKinsey Senior Partner Emeritus Franck Le Deu, who argues that a multipolar biopharma world in which the U.S. continues to thrive even as China becomes meaningfully stronger can emerge. The analysts also discuss BioCentury’s latest Rare Disease Spotlight, which focuses on a wave of therapies aiming to activate retinal function in Stargardt disease patients. Turning to FDA, BioCentury Washington Editor Steve Usdin discusses recent public statements by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, questions about Vinay Prasad’s future, and the plausible mechanism pathway. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658606  #GlobalBiopharma #ChinaBiotech #RareDisease #StargardtDisease #FDAPolicy  00:00 - Introduction 02:47 - Multipolar Biopharma World 13:39 - Rare Disease Spotlight 25:15 - Makary Remarks 31:14 - Plausible Mechanism Framework To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

Gilead is acquiring Arcellx for $7.8 billion up front three years after forging a partnership with the biotech around a cell therapy for multiple myeloma. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts assess what the deal does for the Foster City, Calif.-based biotech’s pipeline. The analysts also discuss the case for using ctDNA as a surrogate endpoint for early cancer trials. Turning to Washington, Steve Usdin offers his takeaways from last week’s PhRMA Forum, which focused on China and the Trump administration’s most favored nation (MFN) drug pricing policy, and on the lessons that can be drawn from FDA’s about-face on the recent vaccine application from Moderna. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658516 #BiotechMA #MultipleMyeloma #ctDNA #DrugPricingPolicy #FDA 00:00 - Introduction 02:34 - Gilead's Arcellx Buy 11:14 - ctDNA Surrogate Endpoints 21:59 - PhRMA Forum Takeaways 29:19 - FDA Moderna U-turn To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

As targeted protein degradation gains momentum, oral selective estrogen receptor degraders are emerging as one of its most advanced proving grounds. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s Lauren Martz assesses how the oral SERD landscape is evolving. Washington Editor Steve Usdin then discusses setbacks at FDA for an orphan therapy from Disc Medicine and a vaccine from Moderna, and why he is calling on life sciences industry leaders to publicly demand the dismissal of Vinay Prasad, FDA’s CSO, CMO, and director of CBER. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658455 #TargetedProteinDegradation #OralSERDs #OncologyDrugDevelopment #FDASetbacks #CBER 00:00 - Introduction 03:12 - Oral SERD Spotlight 11:40 - Setbacks at FDA 15:12 - Disc Medicine CRL To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

2025 marked the end of a four-year slide in series A financings for biotechs, with 144 biotechs raising an aggregate of $8 billion, up $1 billion from the prior two years. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s Danielle Golovin assesses which companies VCs backed last year and what their investments say about where technology is headed. Washington Editor Steve Usdin offers a perspective on why compounded Wegovy is an assault on the biopharma industry and also explains how the spending bill signed into law last week is a rebuke to proposed White House biomedical cuts. And Executive Editor Selina Koch unpacks her interview on The BioCentury Show podcast with neuroscientist and Seaport Chair Steven Paul, noting that while serendipity drives drug discovery in psychiatry, it’s engineering that gets it across the finish line. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658367 #BiotechFinancing #SeriesAFunding #VentureCapital #DrugDiscovery #BiopharmaPolicy 00:00 - Introduction 02:15 - Start-up Spotlight 11:03 - Compounded Wegovy 18:10 - Congress Rebuffs Trump Cuts 23:50 - Steve Paul on Neuropsychiatry To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text

RNAi and exon-skipping therapies headline the list of regulatory and pivotal data catalysts in 2026, while new lipid-lowering mechanisms, modalities, and precision medicines define cardiovascular disease catalysts this year. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss the most important milestones of the year in new modalities, CV and renal diseases. The analysts also discuss a new regulation in China introducing orphan drug exclusivity that could incentivize development of rare disease therapies. Dig into the BioCentury’s catalyst picks and the new China policy below • 2026 Catalysts: The rise of RNAi • 2026 Cardiovascular Catalysts: Lp(a) on the Horizon • 2026 Obesity Catalysts: Launches, readouts and challengers • 2026 Catalysts: Breakthrough progress in renal disease • AZ signals all-in on obesity via CSPC deal for $1.2B up front • China’s orphan drug exclusivity could bolster market, incentivize development View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658286 00:00 - Introduction 02:28 - RNAi and Antisense Therapies 06:37 - Neuromuscular and Musculoskeletal 10:33 - Renal Disease Catalysts 22:26 - China's New Orphan Rules To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at [email protected]. Reach us by sending a text