October 8, 2026

The need-to-know this morning

Bristol Myers Squibb said Zenbexus, recently granted FDA accelerated approval to treat multiple myeloma, reduced the risk of disease progression by 51% compared to standard therapy in a Phase 3 trial.
Generic drugmaker Viatris said it will acquire Pacira Biosciences, maker of non-opioid pain therapies, for $1.65 billion.

pharma

Roche goes beyond licensing in deal with Chinese biotech

Over the past few years, pharma companies have flocked to China to license existing drug candidates. Roche is taking a new approach, partnering with Chinese startup Defand Therapeutics to discover new medicines.

Under the deal, Defand will discover multiple drugs known was molecular glue degraders for cancer and immune-driven diseases. These medicines are designed to create a sticky, more effective connection onto problematic proteins and destroy them. Interest in them has grown after Revolution Medicines showed that its molecular glue treatment Rasonque nearly doubled the survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Read more from STAT's Allison DeAngelis.

politics

Biotechs don't know how to handle Trump's tariffs

A broad tariff on imported pharmaceuticals took effect at the end of September, but many biopharma companies are unsure how to get exemptions.

Back in April, the Trump administration announced a 100% tariff on imported patented drugs and their active ingredients. Large pharma companies that have agreed to a "most-favored nation" deal with the administration are exempt from the tariffs.

But smaller biotech companies haven't made these deals — and they don't know how exactly they can secure exemptions and what to do if they want to appeal a decision.

politics

PhRMA sues Trump administration over MFN policy

The trade group PhRMA is suing the Trump administration over a “most-favored nation” pilot program that ties Medicare drug prices to those in peer countries.

The pilot, called GLOBE, applies to medications in Medicare Part B, meaning drugs administered in doctor's offices. The administration finalized the model last week, and the program is not expected to have much impact because all but a handful of companies have been exempted. Still, PhRMA doesn't want to set a precedent for such a program to exist.

regulation

DOJ signals that it will start scrutinizing drugmakers

The Department of Justice has traditionally pursued health fraud cases centered on providers and clinics, but it seems the agency has turned its attention to drugmakers.

In a new directive last week, the DOJ said it will be watching for violations of a federal law that tightly regulates the pharmaceutical industry.

For now, it’s unclear which sorts of infractions prosecutors will specifically look into. One lawyer speculated that the DOJ may look at companies involved in selling a misbranded medicine or paying kickbacks to providers for promoting drugs.

tech

One startup is selling its AI breast-cancer tool DTC

Over the past two years, pharma companies have been selling obesity and migraine medicines directly to patients paying cash. Now, a health tech startup plans to do the same with an AI algorithm that analyzes mammograms and predicts one's five-year breast cancer risk.

As my colleague Katie Palmer writes, this is part of a growing trend of preventive medicine products being consumerized online.

But doctors are concerned about putting the onus on individual patients to pay for a new test whose real-world impact has not yet been studied.