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Today’s Big News

Jan 24, 2025

‘A really rational IPO environment’: What does it takes for a biotech to go public now?

Novo Nordisk links next-gen obesity drug to 22% weight loss at Week 36, sending stock up 11%

AstraZeneca invests $570M to grow in Canada, plans to add 700 jobs

Obesity biotech Aardvark eyes IPO as Ascentage makes $126M Nasdaq debut

Chutes & Ladders—Flagship vet plants CEO roots at Pharming

Recapping the 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

Featured

‘A really rational IPO environment’: What does it takes for a biotech to go public now?

By Gabrielle Masson

After what many considered a “slow” year for initial public offerings, January has ushered in a string of biotechs filing to go public. But 2024 wasn’t slow—it was actually quite normal.

Novo Nordisk links next-gen obesity drug to 22% weight loss at Week 36, sending stock up 11%

By Nick Paul Taylor

Novo Nordisk has reported 22% weight loss in people who received weekly amycretin injections for 36 weeks, triggering an 11% jump in the Danish drugmaker’s share price in premarket trading.

AstraZeneca invests $570M to grow in Canada, plans to add 700 jobs

By Gabrielle Masson

AstraZeneca is expanding its boot print in Canada with a $570 million investment designed to create 700 jobs.

Obesity biotech Aardvark eyes IPO as Ascentage makes $126M Nasdaq debut

By James Waldron

The buzz around biotech IPOs is continuing through January, with clinical-stage metabolic biotech Aardvark Therapeutics revealing plans to go public while Hong Kong-listed Ascentage Pharma joins the Nasdaq with a $126.4 million offering.

Chutes & Ladders—Flagship vet plants CEO roots at Pharming

By Darren Incorvaia,Zoey Becker

Rare disease drug maker Pharming Group is calling off the search for a CEO successor to longtime chief Sijmen de Vries after landing on Fabrice Chouraqui. Chouraqui was most recently a CEO-partner at Flagship Pioneering and previously served as president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals USA.

Recapping the 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

By Andrea Park,Darren Incorvaia,Angus Liu,Zoey Becker

This week on “The Top Line,” we break down the biggest stories out of JPM, from J&J’s blockbuster acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies to former First Lady Jill Biden’s appearance at Fierce JPM Week.

RFK Jr.'s referral fees in litigation over Merck's Gardasil raise conflict-of-interest questions: reports

By Kevin Dunleavy

Department of Health and Human Services secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to continue to receive referral fees from a law firm that is suing Merck over the marketing and sale of one of its vaccines. RFK Jr.’s plans raise conflict-of-interest questions as he is seeking confirmation to run an agency that regulates vaccines.

Flagship Pioneering forges Cambridge connection with UK research institutions

By Darren Incorvaia

Flagship Pioneering is leveraging its year-old London outpost to forge new research collaborations across the pond. The biotech incubator is teaming up with the U.K.’s Cambridge University Health Partners and the Milner Therapeutics Institute to advance breakthrough science and technologies, the firm announced Jan. 23.

Merck, Eisai's star-crossed Keytruda-Lenvima combo misses survival goal in GI cancer trial

By Angus Liu

Merck & Co. and Eisai have to deal with the reality that yet another phase 3 trial of their combination of Keytruda and Lenvima didn’t exactly go their way.

Fierce Pharma Asia—Takeda R&D chief's new strategy; AZ, Daiichi's ADC nod; Fosun's failed Henlius buy

By Angus Liu

Takeda's R&D chief explained the company's new investment priorities. AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's second antibody-drug conjugate has won its initial FDA approval in breast cancer. Fosun Pharma's attempt to privatize Henlius Biotech has failed. And more.

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