Aleth LifeSci Brief: 11-15 August 2025
US biotech goes six months without an IPO
ALETH / LIFESCI-BRIEF / 2025-08-15 / US BIOTECH GOES SIX MONTHS WITHOUT AN IPOIn this edition
Monday 11 August
AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot renewed his warning that the way Britain prices medicines is squeezing innovation, and put a number on the fix.
The Times reported on 11 August that, with talks under way over a new UK pricing deal, Soriot is pressing ministers to lift NHS spending on patent-protected medicines to at least 0.5% of GDP by 2030, up from about 0.3% today, an increase of more than £5bn. The demand comes while the voluntary pricing scheme is being renegotiated and after AstraZeneca paused planned UK investment over the same dispute. The 0.5% target and the £5bn figure come from the Times interview; AstraZeneca has published no statement carrying them.
Sources:
AstraZeneca boss warns over NHS drug pricing - The Times
Boehringer Ingelheim won its first cancer approval, as the FDA cleared the oral lung-cancer drug zongertinib.
On 8 August the FDA granted accelerated approval to zongertinib, sold as Hernexeos, for adults with unresectable or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer whose tumours carry HER2 tyrosine kinase domain mutations and who have had prior treatment. It is the first oral targeted therapy for HER2-mutant NSCLC and the first oncology medicine from the privately held German company. Approval rested on the Phase Ib Beamion LUNG-1 study, where 75% of 71 previously treated patients responded and 58% of responses lasted at least six months, and the FDA cleared a companion diagnostic alongside it. As an accelerated approval, it may hinge on confirmatory trials.
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Tuesday 12 August
Bayer agreed to pay Kumquat Biosciences up to $1.3bn for an early cancer drug aimed at one of oncology’s hardest targets.
The 12 August deal gives Bayer an exclusive global licence to Kumquat’s oral small-molecule inhibitor of KRAS G12D, a mutation common in pancreatic, colorectal and lung cancers that has so far resisted targeted treatment. Kumquat takes an undisclosed upfront payment plus milestones toward the $1.3bn total, with tiered royalties, and will run the first-in-human study before Bayer takes over development and commercialisation. The asset cleared its US investigational new drug application in July, and the deal is meant to shore up a Bayer pharma division facing patent expiries on its biggest sellers.
Sources:
Bayer and Kumquat Biosciences enter global exclusive license and collaboration in precision oncology - Kumquat Biosciences
Novartis said its antibody ianalumab hit the primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial in a chronic bleeding disorder.
In the VAYHIT2 trial, reported on 12 August, ianalumab combined with the standard drug eltrombopag significantly prolonged time to treatment failure against eltrombopag plus placebo in adults with primary immune thrombocytopenia who had already been treated with corticosteroids. Patients received four once-monthly infusions of ianalumab alongside eltrombopag, and the combination also improved sustained platelet counts at six months, with no new safety signals. Ianalumab is one of the assets Novartis is pushing across autoimmune diseases as older products lose exclusivity.
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Wednesday 13 August
The UK government and Eli Lilly put up to £85m into getting obesity care to patients outside the GP’s office.
Announced on 12 August, the programme splits into up to £50m from the government and up to £35m from Lilly, and routes weight-management support through pharmacies, community services and digital platforms rather than general practice. Eligible patients in participating areas could start from summer 2026, with the government saying tens of thousands could be reached and at least £10m set aside for bids in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Weight-loss medication, Lilly’s tirzepatide among it, is one strand of the wraparound care, which the government frames against obesity’s roughly £11bn annual cost to the NHS.
Sources:
New help for patients battling obesity through pharmacies and community access - Department of Health and Social Care
Pfizer said its Padcev-and-Keytruda combination extended survival in muscle-invasive bladder cancer given around surgery.
In the Phase 3 EV-303 trial, also called KEYNOTE-905 and reported on 12 August, the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin plus the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, given before and after surgery, beat surgery alone in patients ineligible for or declining cisplatin chemotherapy. The regimen met its main goal of event-free survival and also improved overall survival, a key secondary endpoint, at the first interim analysis. Pfizer, which develops Padcev with Astellas while Merck & Co owns Keytruda, held back the underlying numbers for a later medical meeting.
Sources:
Padcev plus Keytruda significantly improves survival for certain patients with bladder cancer - Pfizer
Thursday 14 August
The US biotech market has gone six months without a single drug developer floating, its longest drought since 2008.
Endpoints News reported on 13 August that no US biotech had completed an IPO since mid-February, when Aardvark Therapeutics priced, the longest such gap since the financial crisis choked off offerings for around 21 months. The outlet, which keeps its own tally of biotech listings, tied the freeze to policy and tariff uncertainty and thin demand from generalist investors, pushing companies toward other sources of cash. The American listing calendar is read as a gauge of biotech risk appetite worldwide, so the stall bears on funding well beyond US issuers.
Sources:
Biotech industry goes six months without an IPO - Endpoints News
HPV vaccination of British schoolchildren has stayed far below where it stood before the pandemic.
UKHSA statistics for the 2023 to 2024 school year, published in June, put single-dose HPV coverage at 74.1% for Year 9 girls, against 88.9% in 2018 to 2019, with boys lower and London lagging the rest of England. Drawing on that data on 13 August, The Economist argued the decline is evidence that vaccine hesitancy is not a US-only phenomenon, and that thinner coverage now means more cervical cancer in the decades it takes the disease to develop.
Sources:
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage in adolescents in England: 2023 to 2024 - UK Health Security Agency
Vaccinations to prevent cervical cancer have plummeted in Britain - The Economist
Friday 15 August
Eli Lilly will nearly double the UK list price of Mounjaro from September, and the rise falls on private buyers.
The Times reported on 15 August that Lilly is lifting the list price of its tirzepatide pens by up to 170% from 1 September, taking the highest-dose pen from £122 to £330 a month. Most UK Mounjaro users buy privately through pharmacies and will feel it; the NHS is largely shielded because it pays a separate confidential discount, and the change does not touch NHS commissioning of the drug for obesity or type 2 diabetes in England. Lilly said it was correcting pricing that sat out of line with other developed countries, including in Europe, a move that arrives as the Trump administration presses drugmakers to charge Europe more and America less.
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Superluminal Medicines signed a drug-discovery deal with Eli Lilly worth up to $1.3bn.
Under the 14 August agreement, Lilly gains exclusive rights to small molecules Superluminal designs against undisclosed GPCR targets in obesity and cardiometabolic disease, using an AI-driven discovery platform. Superluminal can earn up to $1.3bn in upfront and near-term payments, an equity investment, milestones and royalties, most of it tied to milestones. Lilly was already a backer, having joined Superluminal’s Series A, so the deal deepens a relationship rather than opening one.
Sources:
Superluminal Medicines announces collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to advance small molecule therapeutics for cardiometabolic diseases and obesity - Superluminal Medicines
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