Chris Spivey is director of Industry Relations and Strategic Partnership, MJH Life Sciences.

Chris Spivey

Behind the Headlines: Budget Cuts, Reshoring, and Biotech Buyouts 

Behind the Headlines is a bi-weekly panel discussion examining the latest trends, readouts, and other factors that drive pharmaceutical news and innovation. Each episode features consultants, venture capitalists, scientists, patient advocates, and journalists discussing theprior weeks’ top news while seeking to highlight the more enduring lessons that hide behind the headlines. 

In this episode, Neil Hunter, Independent Communications Consultant;Alex Philippidis, Senior Business Editor for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, Inside Precision Medicine; Joanna Sadowska, PhD, EMBA Technical Writer, Be Biopharma;and Carl Schoellhammer, PhD, Partner - Life Science / Biopharma Strategy Consulting, DeciBio examine whether small government in the U.S. is bad for big pharma’s business interests. With 

 and access to public funding reduced, potential investors are further discouraged not only because innovation is stymied but also because pressure to lower drug prices(1) and overall accessibility means return on investmentin the pharmaceutical sector, along with the broader healthcare markets, are increasingly uncertain.

Panelists also discussed the effects of tariffs on accelerating near-shoring and reshoring of manufacturing to the U.S., with the most recent example being Merck’s announcement of an expansion of capacity for Gardasil (2).Lastly, in a deal that puts an exclamation point on a torrid time for bluebird bio’s spinout, BMS buys 2seventybio (3), while Astra Zeneca acquires EsoBiotec, whose technology can genetically modify immune cells directly inside the body, affording “many more patients access to transformative cell therapy treatments delivered in just minutes rather than the current process which takes weeks,” according to a statement from the company (4).

HHS Announces 15 Additional Drugs Selected for Medicare Drug Price Negotiations in Continued Effort to Lower Prescription Drug Costs for Seniors. Press release. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. January 17, 2025. 

https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/hhs-announces-15-additional-drugs-selected-medicare-drug-price-negotiations-continued-effort-lower

Merck Unveils New Facility to Increase Vaccine Production Capacity. News release. Merck. March 11, 2025. https://www.merck.com/news/merck-unveils-new-facility-to-increase-vaccine-production-capacity/

2seventy bio Enters into Definitive Agreement to be Acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. News release. 2seventy bio. March 10, 2025.

https://ir.2seventybio.com/news-releases/news-release-details/2seventy-bio-enters-definitive-agreement-be-acquired-bristol

AstraZeneca to acquireEsoBiotec to advance cell therapy ambition.News release. Astra Zeneca. March 17 2025.

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2025/astrazeneca-to-acquire-esobiotec.html

Videos

Neil Hunter, Alex Philippidis, Joanna Sadowska, PhD, EMBA, and Carl Schoellhammer, PhD go behind the headlines to discuss the impact of federal budget cuts on future pharma investments, reshoring efforts, and biotech buyouts.  

Behind the Headlines: Episode 13; Budget Cuts, Reshoring, and Biotech Buyouts 

Behind the Headlines Episode 12–Cell and Gene Therapies, New Genomics Tools, and Recent Partnerships

 is a bi-weekly panel discussion examining the latest trends, readouts, and other factors that drive pharmaceutical news and innovation. Each episode features consultants, venture capitalists, scientists, patient advocates, and journalists discussing the prior weeks’ top news while seeking to highlight the more enduring lessons that hide behind the headlines.

In this episode of Behind the Headlines, Brian Feth, CEO and founder of Xcell Biosciences; Thomas Heathman, chief commercial officer of Ori Biotech; and Matthew Lauber, Sr director of BioSeparations, Waters Corporation, discuss commercialization challenges in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) space and advances in new genomics tools from Roche, Illumina, and Eikon. In addition, the panelists review Biogen’s and Stoke Therapeutics’ collaboration for the development and commercialization of zorevunersen, a therapy for Dravet’s syndrome (1); Thermo Fisher Scientific’s purchase of Solventum’s purification and filtration business (2); and Eli Lilly’s $27 Billion plant expansion in the United States due to tax breaks extensions and tariffs threats

Pfizer said the discontinuation of its last remaining cell therapy program was due to several reasons, including “limited interest in gene therapies for the bleeding disorder…However, the company said it will redirect its time and resources towards Hympavzi, an injectable drug approved in October to prevent or reduce bleeding episodes in hemophilia A or B patients aged 12 years and older” (3). Our panel pointed out that a good amount of business process and commercialization rationale went into this decision. This coincides with the Carlysle groups purchase of a CGT Pioneer bluebird bio, for only $30 million (4), and illustrates investor wariness and strong commercial headwinds for the CGT field. 

Recently, new genomics tools have been introduced into the market. Roche has unveiled a new class of next-generation sequencing with its novel sequencing by expansion technology (5), while at the same moment Illumina unveils first-of-its-kind spatial transcriptomics technology (6). In the same moment, Eikon has released novel single-molecule tracking technology, demonstrated through “clinical studies now operating in 28 countries, across five continents, we are accelerating the development of much-needed therapies while continuing to expand our research and development capabilities,” said Roger M. Perlmutter, MD, PhD, CEO and Board Chair of Eikon Therapeutics, in a press release (7).

Biogen. Biogen and Stoke Therapeutics Enter into Collaboration to Develop and Commercialize Zorevunersen for the Treatment of Dravet Syndrome, a Rare Genetic Epilepsy Associated with Refractory Seizures and Neurodevelopmental Impairments. 

Thermo Fisher Strikes Deal for Solventum’s Filtration Unit

Santhosh. C. Pfizer Stops Commercialization of Hemophilia Gene Therapy Beqvez, 

Carlyle. bluebird bio Announces Definitive Agreement to be Acquired by Carlyle and SK Capital. 

Roche. Roche Unveils a New Class of Next-generation Sequencing with its Novel Sequencing by Expansion Technology. 

Illumina. Illumina Unveils First-of-its-kind Spatial Transcriptomics Technology. 

Genetic Engineering News. Eikon Therapeutics Raises $350 Million to Support Clinical Stage Programs, Pipeline Development. 

Brian Feth, Xcell Biosciences; Thomas Heathman, Ori Biotech; and Matthew Lauber, Waters Corporation go behind the headlines and discuss commercialization challenges in the cell and gene therapy space; advances in new genomics tools from Roche, Illumina, and Eikon; and the latest development and manufacturing partnerships. 

Behind the Headlines Episode 11–GLP-1 Patent Expiry, Recent Acquisitions, and Indirect Costs Capping

In episode 11, Benjamin McLeod, founder of Convey BIO, Abhi Naravane, PhD, MBA, partner, PA Consulting, and Marianna Tcherpakov, PhD, director Business Development, CMC Services, Frontage Laboratories, discussed advertisements for GLP-1s shown during Super Bowl LIX, several large deals in the wake of the 2025 JP Morgan Health Care Conference, right sizing of the government under the Trump administration, the move toward capping National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant indirect costs at 15%, and a couple of interesting new companies that came onto our radar last week.

The panel takes a looks at Bain Capital’s acquisition of Mitsubishi Tanabe, where Japan’s supply of weight loss drugs seems a prime motivation (1), and of a similar scale in terms of overall dollar value, 

Therapeutics from Blackstone Life Sciences for an initial almost $1 billion upfront payment in a deal potentially worth up to $3.1 billion. The deal brings with it Anthos’ abelacimab, a novel factor XI inhibitor for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation patients and blood clot prevention in cancer patients, which is in clinical trials (2). 

Causing much conversation and exchange of strong opinion is the 

Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates

 document issued by NIH on Feb. 7, 2025, which caps NIH grant indirect costs at 15%. The panel was divided, some seeing this as being realistically in line with the rest of society, while others believe it is off-target in terms of creating more downstream harm than good (3).

To round out the conversation, two new interesting companies noticed at the 

 were pointed to as holding promising new approaches. Aikium has a platform that enables Yotta-scale (10

) machine learning on massive libraries by combining the world’s only artificial intelligence-driven trillion-protein messenger RNA display for large proteins and patented generative AI based on protein language models (4). Promise BIO explores a broad range of the post-translational modification landscape, “by integrating chemical knowledge, statistics, and advanced algorithms to address the computational burden while ensuring no biologically-relevant factors are overlooked” (5). 

Brain Capital. Bain Capital to Acquire Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation. Press Release. Feb. 7, 2025. 

https://www.baincapital.com/news/bain-capital-acquire-mitsubishi-tanabe-pharma-corporation

Anthos Therapeutics. Blackstone Life Sciences and Anthos Therapeutics Announce Agreement for Anthos to be Acquired by Novartis for up to $3.1 billion. Press Release. Feb 11, 2025. 

https://anthostherapeutics.com/press-release/anthos_2025-02-11_release/

NIH. Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates. NIH Notice, NOT-OD-25-068. Feb. 7, 2025. 

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-068.html

Spivey, C. Aikium's AI-Driven mRNA Engine Looks to Address Undruggable Disordered Proteins. BioPharm International.com. Feb. 10, 2025. 

https://www.biopharminternational.com/view/aikium-ai-driven-mrna-engine-looks-to-address-undruggable-disordered-proteins

Promise Bio. Promise.bio (accessed Feb. 18, 2025). 

Benjamin McLeod, Abhi Naravane, PhD, MBA, and Marianna Tcherpakov PhD go behind the headlines to talk about the latest big acquisitions, GLP-1 Super Bowl advertising, and changes in NIH funding. 

Leroy (Lee) Hood, MD, PhD discusses the potential impact of precision medicine, moving towards a more preventive health model, and the role of AI in health information.

Lee Hood on Precision Medicine and Shifting Towards Prevention

Leroy (Lee) Hood, MD, PhD, has developed a long list of paradigm-shifting scientific instruments that have made possible major advances in the biological and medical sciences.

We had a chance to speak with Hood at the 

 World Conference in Santa Clara, CA, where he discussed the practicalities of turning a disease care system into a health maintenance system and also his plans to develop a new peptide information-based pharmaceutical company.

"Data-driven health is at an enormous turning point, and it's going to trigger, I think, within less than a five-year period, the ability to analyze literally millions of people with regard to their genome and [transcriptome], and from that derive the optimization of wellness, healthy aging, and even the ability to detect and reverse diseases early,” Hood told 

Hood went on to talk about the real-world adoption of preventive medicine versus treatment of chronic disease, suggesting that uptake will likely need to come from an economic point-of-view, given that there would potentially be an enormous amount of savings by avoiding chronic disease.

Hood is president and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology. He is also senior vice president and chief science officer of Providence St. Joseph Health. He is one of only 15 individuals elected to all three US National Academies—the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. Hood played a key role in founding or co-founding 15 different biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Rosetta, and Arivale. Hood was the recipient of the 1987 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for translating the genetics of antibody diversity into explicit molecular terms.

Hood, a pioneer of systems biology and systems medicine, shared his personal interest in starting a new peptide-based, informational-driven pharmaceutical company that would address wellness and longevity.

Systems Biology Pioneer Lee Hood Talks Precision Medicine, AI in Health, and the Next Paradigm Shift 

Behind the Headlines: Sana's Type 1 Diabetes Breakthrough, Drug Price Negotiations, and More

 is a bi-weekly panel discussion examining the latest trends, readouts, and other factors that drive pharmaceutical news and innovation. Each episode features consultants, venture capitalists, scientists, patient advocates, and journalists discussing the prior weeks’ top news while seeking to highlight the more enduring lessons that hide behind the headlines.

In episode 10, we’re joined by Brian Feth, CEO and Founder, Xcell Biosciences; Jonathan Grinstein, PhD, North American Editor, Inside Precision Medicine; Beth Willers, Principal and Founder, White Matter Communications; and Laks Pernenkil, Principal, US Life Sciences Product, Supply and Manufacturing Operations Practice Leader, Deloitte Consulting, who discuss recent headlines from the pharmaceutical industry, including major announcements from the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference as well as changes arising from the change of administration in US government.

The group discussed Sana Biotechnology’s early trial results showing that allogeneic treatment without immunosuppression might be possible in type 1 diabetes. “The clinical data are highly promising for patients and provide the first evidence in humans for overcoming allogeneic and autoimmune rejection with pancreatic islet cell transplantation in type 1 diabetes with no immunosuppression,” said Per-Ola Carlsson, MD, principal investigator and senior physician and professor at the Clinic for Endocrinology and Diabetology at Uppsala University Hospital. (1)

Also discussed was the interconnected topic of proteomics, which appear to be having a moment thanks to the UK Biobank choosing the Olink platform for a major set of initiatives going forward. (2)

In addition, the participants weighed in on the latest round of Medicare price negotiations, with the medications listed encompassing a large percentage of overall drug expenditure, including Ozempic, Rybelsus, Wegovy, Trelegy, Ellipta, Xtandi, Pomalyst, Ibrance, Ofev, Linzess, Calquence, Austedo, Austedo XR, Breo, Ellipta, Tradjenta, Xifaxan, Vraylar, Janumet, Janumet XR, and Otezla. (3)

Sana Biotechnology Announces Positive Clinical Results from Type 1 Diabetes Study of Islet Cell Transplantation Without Immunosuppression. , Press release. Sana Biotechnologies. January 7, 2025. 

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/01/07/3005841/0/en/Sana-Biotechnology-Announces-Positive-Clinical-Results-from-Type-1-Diabetes-Study-of-Islet-Cell-Transplantation-Without-Immunosuppression.html

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Olink Platform Selected for World’s Largest Human Proteome Study. Press release. Thermofisher Scientific. January 9, 2025. 

https://ir.thermofisher.com/investors/news-events/news/news-details/2025/Thermo-Fisher-Scientifics-Olink-Platform-Selected-for-Worlds-Largest-Human-Proteome-Study/default.aspx

Brian Feth, Jonathan Grinstein, PhD, Beth Willers, and Laks Pernenkil go behind the headlines to discuss major news announcements made during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, a wave of new Medicare drug price negotiations, and more. 

Behind the Headlines: Sana’s Type 1 Diabetes Breakthrough, Drug Price Negotiations, and More

Behind the Headlines: 2025 Wish List

In episode 9, we’re joined by Dr. Vanessa Almendro, PhD, MBA, VP, Head of Science & Technology Innovation at Danaher Corporation; Elliot Berger, Board of Directors and Strategic Advisor at Orientation Marketing; Benjamin McLeod, founder at Convey Bio; and Turna Ray, managing editor, Precision Medicine Online, to discuss what they would most like to see happen in the bio/pharmaceutical industry in 2025.

The panel takes a look at how artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to accelerate drug discovery and development, as well as making the healthcare system more effective. Despite how AI could potentially benefit pharmaceutical processes, there is still an reluctance by some in the industry to adopt AI solutions that are already in place. AI may also be coupled with gene editing to diversify precision medicine.

Strengthening and creating new collaborative structures for rare disorders between academia and industry in 2025 may provide for the development of cost-effective personalized medicines. Gene therapies and allogeneic cell therapies will move forward, according to the panel, and messenger RNA vaccines will continue to progress in other areas besides COVID-19.

Investment, science, and technology will converge to advance these types of therapies. Biotech companies will also be investing in making glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) products more precise in the patient segmentation and expanding on applications of these types of drugs.

Vanessa Almendro, Elliot Berger, Benjamin McCloud, and Turna Ray go behind the headlines to discuss their ‘wish list’ for the progression of trends in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.

Chris Spivey

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