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Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has partnered with U.S.-based Vivtex Corp in a deal worth up to $2.1 billion to develop next-generation oral drugs for obesity and diabetes, the companies said on Wednesday. Under the partnership, the privately held company will license some of its oral drug-delivery technology, while Novo Nordisk will take charge of global development and commercialization. Here are some details: •Novo Nordisk will make an undisclosed upfront payment to Vivtex under the deal, besides milestone payments and royalties on future product sales. •The partnership aims to make oral forms of biologic drugs that would otherwise be given as injections by improving how they are absorbed in the gut. •Vivtex's platform uses gut-screening tests, delivery technologies and AI tools to help make biologic drugs work as pills, the companies said. •Novo currently offers GLP-1 drugs for obesity and type 2 diabetes, including Wegovy, Ozempic and the oral diabetes drug Rybelsus. •In January, the Danish drugmaker launched Wegovy pill, the world's first oral drug for obesity, in the U.S.

GSK has agreed to pay $950 million in cash for Canadian biotech 35Pharma, it said on Wednesday, marking the second major deal new CEO Luke Miels has struck to accelerate development of new medicines at the British drugmaker. Miels, who took over from Emma Walmsley last month, is trying to counter looming patent expiries for the drugmaker's top-selling HIV drugs through bolt-on deals. GSK agreed to buy RAPT Therapeutics for $2.2 billion in January. The latest acquisition of 35Pharma's experimental pulmonary hypertension drug, HS235, will bolster GSK's future pipeline of respiratory medicines. Pulmonary hypertension is a life-shortening disease marked by high blood pressure in the lungs that affects more than 80 million people globally. Current treatments include Merck's injectable treatment Winrevair. GSK shares have risen nearly 21% so far this year and have staged a strong recovery compared to several European rivals after a turbulent 2025. Miels has said GSK will keep its focus on the downstream effects of obesity like liver and heart diseases, since the obesity treatment market is becoming increasingly crowded. HS235 is in early-stage development to treat the condition in obese patients with a type of heart condition, as well as in patients who have previously received treatment for pulmonary hypertension. In...

AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot’s 2025 pay rose 6.4% to 17.7 million pounds ($23.87 million) boosted by higher annual bonuses, keeping him among the FTSE 100’s highest-paid executives, a filing showed on Tuesday. AstraZeneca, which is London’s most valuable company and whose earnings jumped in 2025, paid Soriot 4.3 million pounds in annual bonus last year, up about 22% from 2024 levels, according to the company’s annual report.

Novo Nordisk said on Tuesday its ‌triple agonist UBT251 of ‌the receptors for GLP-1, GIP and glucagon, jointly developed with United Biotechnology, achieved a statistically significant mean weight loss of up to ‌19.7% after 24 ⁠weeks in a trial. The trial, conducted by United ⁠Biotechnology, investigated the safety and efficacy of once weekly injectable 2 milligram (mg), 4 mg and 6 mg ‌doses of UBT251 compared to placebo in Chinese people with overweight or obesity, Novo Nordisk said in a statement. From a ‌baseline mean body weight of 92.2 kilogrammes, the highest mean weight loss ‌observed for people treated with UBT251 was 19.7% compared to 2.0% in the placebo group after 24 ‌weeks of treatment, Novo said.

Barclays analysts on Tuesday slashed their peak sales forecasts for Novo Nordisk's next-generation obesity drug CagriSema to just $2 billion from $12 billion following disappointing trial results for the drug a day earlier. The cut in the bank's forecast was a clear sign of the extent of the blow that the new data dealt to the Danish drugmaker's efforts to regain its market leadership against U.S. rival Eli Lilly in a rapidly evolving obesity market. Novo unveiled late-stage trial data for CagriSema on Monday that not only showed it underperforming Lilly's rival Zepbound, which launched in late 2023, but appeared to show weight loss with Zepbound was better than even some of Lilly's own data had shown. Novo's shares tanked 16% on the news, wiping away the remaining gains brought by its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, while Lilly jumped 5%. Novo plans to launch next year after expected approval by the U.S. FDA by the end of this year, but Barclays, Jefferies and analysts at several other banks said the data led them to doubt the drug's commercial potential.

With an eye—and ear—toward spreading the perseverance and optimism ingrained in the field of science, AbbVie has launched a new podcast series touting the work of its own scientists and other experts. “The Persistence Lab” debuted Thursday with a first episode that dives into the question of whether medical cures can be discovered and developed faster than they currently are. Over the course of about 20 minutes, host Kira Dineen talks to a pair of AbbVie researchers about the complex process of finding both functional and complete cures for patients, as well as AbbVie’s own work to do so. The series’ first season will span 10 episodes rolling out every other week, Molly James-Lundak, the company’s VP of R&D communications, told Fierce Pharma Marketing in an interview. Like the first episode, each subsequent installment will focus on a specific challenge in medicine or healthcare and feature Dineen talking to the people in and out of the lab who are working to address the issue. Every episode will follow a similar three-act “narrative arc,” according to James-Lundak. “We think that there’s this inherent drama in the work of our scientists and other professionals,” she said. “So, starting with the spark: What’s the hypothesis or...

Frontier Biotechnologies said on Tuesday it has struck a deal with GSK GSK, granting the British drugmaker worldwide rights to develop two small interfering RNA therapies targeting kidney diseases in an agreement that could be worth up to $1 billion.

AbbVie on Monday said it would invest $380 million to build two new active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facilities at its Illinois campus, expanding its domestic production capacity for its neuroscience and obesity medicines. The investment is part of AbbVie's broader effort to scale up domestic manufacturing, as drugmakers are scrambling to shore up their U.S. manufacturing capacity and domestic inventory amid the Trump administration's hefty tariffs on pharmaceutical imports into the country. The U.S. government imposed a 100% tariff on branded drugs in October, but said it would only apply to producers who had not already broken ground on U.S. manufacturing plants. AbbVie said the construction at the new facility in North Chicago, Illinois would begin in spring 2026, with both new facilities expected to be fully operational in 2029. The new facilities will integrate advanced manufacturing technologies and artificial intelligence to support production of future pipeline medicines, the company said. API production - the process of making a drug's active chemical components - is one of the most complex steps in pharmaceutical manufacturing, the drugmaker said. AbbVie said it plans to hire 300 people in North Chicago, including engineers, scientists, manufacturing operators and lab technicians. In January, it committed $100 billion over the next decade...

Merck said on Monday it would split its human-health business into two units, creating a division for its cancer franchise led by blockbuster drug Keytruda while grouping its non-oncology medicines separately. The restructuring underscores the U.S. drugmaker's push to diversify beyond Keytruda amid the drug's looming loss of exclusivity later this decade. Keytruda, approved for several forms of cancers, is the best selling prescription medicine in the world. The treatment generated more than $30 billion in 2025 and accounted for nearly half of the company's total revenue. Merck shares were up 1.4% in premarket trading. The company has tripled its pipeline since 2021 and struck two deals in the $10 billion range last year, buying Cidara Therapeutics and Verona Pharma to broaden its portfolio. The split follows Merck's downbeat 2026 forecast issued earlier this month, where it warned of lower-than-expected sales and profit as several legacy drugs near loss of exclusivity and face generic pressure. Merck also appointed Jannie Oosthuizen as executive vice president and president of the cancer business. Oosthuizen most recently served as senior vice president and president of Merck Human Health U.S., where he led strategy and commercialization for the company's U.S. portfolio. inted Jannie Oosthuizen as executive vice president and president of...

- Pfizer (PFE.N), opens new tab has entered an agreement to license Sciwind Biosciences' type 2 diabetes treatment ecnoglutide, with potential payments of up to $495 million if milestones are met, the Chinese drugmaker said on Tuesday. The deal represents "an important first step to advance Pfizer's global strategy in the metabolic field in China," Sciwind said in a statement, opens new tab on its website. The Hangzhou-based company's injection belongs to a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists that has also seen investment from drugmakers including Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab, Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab, Innovent Biologics (1801.HK), opens new tab and Guangzhou Innogen (2591.HK), opens new tab. In December, Pfizer licensed from another Chinese drugmaker an experimental GLP-1 drug, a class that works by helping control blood sugar levels while triggering a feeling of fullness. Ecnoglutide was approved in China in January and Sciwind has also applied in the country to sell an experimental version of the drug for weight management. Under the agreement with Pfizer, Sciwind is eligible to receive an upfront fee for an undisclosed amount and additional payments tied to regulatory and sales-related milestones. The agreement covers ecnoglutide's commercialisation in mainland China. A spokesperson for Pfizer...