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AstraZeneca shareholders approved a direct listing of the drugmaker's shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, giving it access to a deeper capital pool. The drugmaker said 99.36% of votes cast in a general meeting favoured the proposal. The company needed at least 75% of votes for the resolution to pass. AstraZeneca, London's most valuable company, outlined plans for a much-anticipated U.S. direct listing in September, replacing its existing American depositary receipts on the Nasdaq with ordinary shares on the NYSE, while retaining its London and Stockholm listings. The U.S. market accounts for more than 40% of AstraZeneca's revenue, making it critical to CEO Pascal Soriot's growth strategy and future outlook amid mounting political scrutiny. AstraZeneca Chair Michel Demare said in a statement that the shareholder vote in favour of the board's proposal showed strong investor confidence in the company's move to streamline its listing across London, Stockholm and New York. He said the harmonised listing structure would give AstraZeneca greater flexibility to tap global capital markets, particularly in the U.S., as it continues to expand in high-growth regions. While analysts and policymakers had expressed relief that the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker's plans did not include ditching its London listing altogether, there are still concerns...

Eli Lilly said on Monday it plans to build a new $3 billion manufacturing plant in the Netherlands to expand the production capacity for its keenly watched experimental weight-loss pill, orforglipron, and other oral medicines. Lilly, the world's most valuable pharmaceutical company by market capitalization, has invested billions of dollars in recent months to scale up the production of orforglipron. The company competes with Danish rival Novo Nordisk to launch the pill and solidify its lead in the rapidly expanding obesity treatment market. Lilly said the Dutch facility will strengthen its global supply chain and expand the capacity for its growing portfolio of oral medications, mainly in cardiometabolic health and obesity, neuroscience, cancer treatment, as well as immunology. Shares of the Indianapolis-based drugmaker were up 2.5% following the announcement. The facility will be equipped with advanced technologies such as paperless manufacturing and AI-driven real-time analytics "to deliver medicines faster with higher quality and more reliably to people around the world," CEO David Ricks said. Speaking at a press conference discussing the announcement, Ricks said the Netherlands was chosen for the site partly due to its proximity to the European Medicines Agency as well as the availability of skilled and multilingual workforce. The plant, located in Leiden...

Germany's BioNTech on Monday lifted its 2025 revenue guidance after receiving initial payments from its new partner Bristol Myers Squibb in a cancer immunotherapy alliance that seeks to challenge Merck's best-selling Keytruda. BioNTech, Pfizer's partner on COVID-19 vaccines, said it was projecting full-year revenue of 2.6 billion euros ($3.03 billion) to 2.8 billion euros, up from a previous guidance range of 1.7 billion to 2.2 billion euros. Earlier this year, Bristol agreed to pay up to $11.1 billion in the partnership deal over time, depending on achievements. BioNTech said on Monday that the partners extended their clinical trial programme for the cancer drug in question, pumitamig, during the third quarter and would add more trials by next year. The German biotech firm said third-quarter revenue gained 22% to 1.52 billion euros. BioNTech is pivoting its focus to cancer drugs, which are expected to drive future growth of the company, as revenue from its COVID-19 vaccine steadily decline from their pandemic era highs.

-Novo Nordisk's late bid to hijack Pfizer's takeover of U.S. obesity biotech Metsera marks an aggressive shift from the Danish drugmaker as it seeks to regain ground in the weight-loss drug market under a new CEO and board. Novo, the drugmaker behind blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic, launched a bid on Thursday for Metsera valuing the firm at some $9 billion and crashing Pfizer's deal for the firm announced in September. The move, after Novo had appeared to have been beaten out, comes a week after the Danish firm's top shareholder dramatically took control of the company's board, criticizing the old leadership for moving too slowly in the weight-loss drug race against main rival Eli Lilly in the lucrative U.S. market. "We asked them to become more aggressive and ambitious," said Mikael Bak, head of the Danish Shareholders' Association which has around 17,000 members, most of them investors in Novo. "This is a signal down that way. But it's hard for us to say if it is the right thing to do." 'DESIRE AND WISH TO WIN' Novo has lost ground in the $150 billion weight-loss drug market to Lilly, whose rival drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro have the clinical edge over Wegovy...

Gilead Sciences said on Thursday its HIV drug sales rose 4% to $5.3 billion in the third quarter including $39 million for its new prevention drug Yeztugo, helping to boost its profit. Overall product sales, however, fell 2% to $7.3 billion due to lower COVID-19 and cancer cell therapy sales. Gilead shares closed down a fraction and fell 1% to $117 in after-hours trading. Wall Street expected sales of Yeztugo, which has an annual U.S. list price of about $28,000, at $37.5 million, according to LSEG. The drug is a twice-yearly injection approved by U.S. regulators in June to prevent HIV in adults and adolescents at high risk of contracting the deadly infection. Sales of the new HIV prevention drug were in line with estimates, but fell short of "growing expectations," RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams said in a research note. "We are really pleased with the progress of the Yeztugo launch," Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day said in an interview, noting that 75% of U.S. payers have agreed to cover the drug, and the company expects that to increase to 90% by mid-2026. CVS Health, which runs the largest U.S. pharmacy benefit manager, has still not added Yeztugo to its commercial plans due to...

Metsera has become the obesity drug market's hottest ticket. The New York-based biotech is at the centre of a bidding war between Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, both vying for access to its pipeline of experimental treatments as competition intensifies in the booming $150 billion weight-loss drug market. Metsera’s lead candidate, MET-097i, is a once-monthly GLP-1 injectable. Unlike Novo's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound, which are both weekly shots, it works by selectively binding to a protein pathway linked to weight loss and insulin release, potentially reducing side effects and dosing frequency. PROMISING CANDIDATES IN THE PIPELINE Last month, data from a mid-stage study showed the highest dose of the drug helped patients lose an average of up to 14.1% of their body weight. Another early-stage candidate is MET 233i, a long-acting drug that targets the pancreatic hormone amylin which is co-secreted with insulin. Analysts at Leerink estimate the drugs could be worth more than $5 billion in peak annual sales. Founded in 2022 by Population Health Partners and ARCH Venture Partners, the biotech venture giant led by Bob Nelsen, Metsera has drawn deep-pocketed backers including Google-parent Alphabet, which has a 5% stake. Nelsen's ARCH is the top shareholder with a 25% stake. Clive Meanwell, one of the Population...

Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.S), opens new tab on Sunday said it agreed to acquire U.S. biotech firm Avidity Biosciences for about $12 billion in cash, as the company looks to bolster its portfolio of treatments for rare muscle disorders. As per the terms of the deal, Avidity stockholders will receive $72 per share in cash, representing a premium of 46% to the company's closing on Friday. Bloomberg News reported on the deal earlier, citing a person familiar with the matter. Novartis has been proactively striking deals this year to address the impending patent cliff for some of its blockbuster drugs, including Entresto for heart failure, Xolair for asthma and Cosentyx for autoimmune diseases. Under the terms of the deal, Avidity will separate its early-stage precision cardiology programs into a new company called Spinco, which is expected to be a publicly traded company, Avidity said in a separate release. RARE DISEASES With this acquisition, Novartis is expanding into areas with limited treatment options, while strengthening its presence in the rare disease landscape. San Diego, California-based Avidity, a clinical-stage company, is developing treatments for various muscle disorders and advancing several first-in-class drug candidates. Its lead drug, Del-zota, is in early-to-mid-stage development as a potential treatment for a rare...

With another quarter of growth in the books, Swiss CDMO Lonza is continuing to regain its forward momentum as it seeks to leave the post-COVID doldrums behind. In a "qualitative update" Thursday, Lonza noted that it inked a number of "large" contracts in 2025's third quarter, including a “significant long-term commercial supply agreement” at its recently acquired facility in Vacaville, California. The company expects sales in the second half of the year to outpace those from the first and reiterated its annual revenue guidance, projecting growth between 20% and 21% for all of 2025. While Lonza didn't share detailed sales figures in the update, the company is crediting its recent acceleration in large part to its Vacaville biologics manufacturing site, which it gained last year in a $1.2 billion purchase from Roche. Upon signing the deal, Lonza said it would invest 500 million Swiss francs (at the time worth $561 million) to expand the plant, which handles commercial- and clinical-stage manufacturing. The site is among the largest biologics facilities in the world, with a staff of more than 750. Lonza touted "strong momentum" for its Integrated Biologics unit in the third quarter, noting that it's seeing “continuing robust demand for large-scale mammalian assets" and...

Eli Lilly said on Friday it would acquire gene therapy developer Adverum Biotechnologies in a deal valued at up to $261.7 million, aiming to strengthen its pipeline with an experimental eye disease treatment. The deal will give Lilly access to Adverum’s gene therapy candidate, Ixo-vec, and underscores the U.S. drugmaker’s focus on such treatments. Lilly has offered $3.56 for each share of Adverum held, totaling about $74.7 million in cash. Shareholders may also get up to $8.91 per share in milestone payments, contingent on U.S. approval of Ixo-vec within seven years and achieving more than $1 billion in annual global sales within 10 years of deal close. This brings the total potential payout to $12.47 per share. Adverum shares closed at $4.18 on Thursday. They rose 7.7% to $4.5 in early trading. Ixo-vec is being studied in a late-stage trial as a one-time eye injection for wet age-related macular degeneration, or wAMD. The condition is caused by the growth of abnormal blood vessels at the back of the eye, leading to damage and scarring in the area responsible for central vision. “Ixo-vec has the potential to transform wAMD treatment from a paradigm of chronic care with repeated intravitreal injections to a convenient one-time therapy,” said Andrew...

Eli Lilly signed an agreement with Cipla, allowing the Indian drugmaker to sell its blockbuster weight-loss drug under a separate brand in the country, the companies said on Thursday. Under the agreement, Lilly will manufacture the drug and Cipla will market it under the brand name Yurpeak, the drugmakers said. Yurpeak will be available as a once-weekly pre-filled injector pen, same as Lilly's Mounjaro Kwikpen, allowing healthcare providers to personalise treatment plans to individual patient needs. The medication will be available in six dose strengths - 2.5 mg, 5 mg, 7.5 mg, 10 mg, 12.5 mg and 15 mg and will be priced the same as Mounjaro. Lilly began selling Mounjaro in India in late March for diabetes and obesity in 2.5 mg and 5 mg vials, before getting India drug regulator's approval for the Kwikpen device in June. The drug's sales more than doubled within months of its launch. Tirzepatide belongs to a class of therapies known as GLP-1 receptor agonists that help control blood sugar and slow digestion, making people feel fuller for longer.