The hefty funding will support a U.S. and China-based startup that’s amassed a pipeline of nearly 20 drugs and formed two lucrative partnerships with Sanofi.

Original title: “Earendil Labs, an AI-powered drugmaker, hauls in $787M”

Acquiring a unit of privately held Synnovation Therapeutics hands Novartis a prospect that might improve on medicines that, like its own Piqray, target tumors driven to growth by PIK3CA mutations.

Original title: “Novartis pays $2B to land a startup’s breast cancer drug”

Biotech, in particular companies that are pre-commercial with a longer-duration risk profile, could be great investments as Operation Epic Fury rolls on, according to a Truist Securities analysis.

Original title: “Biopharma Could Provide a Haven for Investment as Middle East Conflict Roils Global Markets”

Aside from the $2 billion upfront payment, Novartis is also putting up to $1 billion on the line in milestones for Synnovation Therapeutics’ pan-mutant-selective PI3Kα blocker.

Original title: “Novartis Buys Breast Cancer Drug for $2B to Keep Up With Myriad Rivals”

The main beneficiary of Roche’s discontinuation of an investigational spinal muscular atrophy drug is Scholar Rock, which was hobbled by manufacturing concerns at a Novo Nordisk facility last year but is now nearing a potential resolution.

Original title: “Roche Ends Run for Muscular Atrophy Drug, Leaving Door Open for Competitors”

With the approval of Wegovy HD, Novo Nordisk joins Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim and USAntibiotics as beneficiaries of the FDA’s Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program, which aims to review products that align with certain national priorities in less than two months.

Original title: “Novo’s High Dose Wegovy Scores FDA Priority Voucher Program’s 4th Nod”

While sales of Talzenna, which Pfizer acquired in a $14 billion deal, have been “negligible” so far, the new results should justify use in earlier lines of care, one analyst said.

Original title: “Pfizer aims for wider use of PARP drug in prostate cancer with new data”

The company is establishing commercial production capabilities to fuel plans to launch autologous CAR-T cell therapies in China.

Original title: “AstraZeneca Building Shanghai Production Plant to Support Cell Therapy Strategy”

After a lengthy downturn, renewed optimism is building among young drugmakers and their backers as a new funding wave takes shape, said Santé Ventures’ Omar Khalil.

Original title: “A biotech VC sees early signs of a turnaround for startups”

Gossamer Bio reported last month that its only late-stage candidate failed a Phase 3 study in pulmonary arterial hypertension, casting doubt on the asset's future prospects.

Original title: “Gossamer Nearly Halves Workforce in Savings Push After Late-Stage Hypertension Fail”

Prime biotech buyout targets such as Revolution Medicines and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals have recently found themselves in the middle of acquisition rumors—though no deals have panned out so far.

Original title: “As Analysts Await Pharma-on-Pharma Megadeals, Biotechs Offer Attractive Alternatives for the Cautious”

The planned Shanghai facility extends a yearslong push into the field and will support CAR-T therapies AstraZeneca is making for autoimmune disease and cancer.

Original title: “AstraZeneca to boost cell therapy capabilities with new China investment”

In this episode of Denatured, you'll listen to Viswa Colluru, CEO and founder of Enveda and Akshay Rai, principal, Healthcare & Biotech Investments at Premji Invest. We speak about how AI platforms must now prove themselves through proprietary data, focused pipelines and clinical readouts in competitive diseases to garner investor interest.

Original title: “Inside the Race to Build the Next Generation of AI Drug Discovery Platforms”