👋 Good morning! Corn vs COVID… sounds like the title to a cheaply made horror movie about a viral outbreak in the Midwest, but it’s an actual headline about a crop science company suing COVID vaccine developers. Yes, you read that right.

Bayer has filed lawsuits against Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson, claiming the companies infringed on mRNA-related intellectual property originally developed at Monsanto, which Bayer owns.

The patents in question were originally designed to improve protein expression in crops. Bayer now argues that the same tech was used to stabilize mRNA and boost protein production in COVID vaccines. If that feels like a long walk from cornfields to clinics, you’re not alone.

It’s a reminder that biotech innovation often travels strange paths. Sometimes those paths lead straight to federal court.

💰 Eli Lilly Confirms $1.2B Ventyx Buy to Expand Oral Inflammatory Pipeline
Eli Lilly has officially agreed to acquire Ventyx Biosciences in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $1.2 billion, paying $14 per share in a transaction expected to close in the first half of 2026. The San Diego-based biotech brings a portfolio of oral small molecules targeting inflammation-mediated diseases, including NLRP3 inhibitors aimed at cardiometabolic, neurodegenerative and autoimmune conditions, providing Lilly a foothold beyond metabolic drugs like Mounjaro and Zepbound. The purchase price represents a generous ~62% premium over recent trading averages, underscoring Lilly’s strategic intent to diversify into chronic inflammation and immune pathways. Boards of both companies have approved the transaction, and stockholders are set to vote as the deal moves toward customary regulatory clearances.

❌ CDC Slashes Childhood Vaccine Recommendations Effective Immediately
The CDC has removed six vaccines from its routine childhood immunization schedule, including flu, COVID, rotavirus, meningitis, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B. While the shots are still available, they now require consultation with a healthcare specialist rather than being broadly recommended. The changes took effect immediately and mark one of the most dramatic rewrites of U.S. vaccine guidance in decades. Expect ripple effects across pediatrics, public health, and vaccine manufacturers.

💊 Lilly Returns to Nimbus for Another Swing at Oral Obesity Drugs
Eli Lilly is back at Nimbus Therapeutics with a new collaboration targeting oral obesity treatments, handing over $55 million upfront with up to $1.3 billion in downstream milestones. Nimbus will deploy its computational chemistry and structure-based drug design platform to develop a next-gen oral metabolic therapy. Oral obesity drugs are biotech’s hottest lottery ticket right now, especially after Novo’s oral Wegovy launch. If you read “Nimbus” and immediately pictured a broomstick, same.

🤝 Amgen Acquires Dark Blue and Dances With Disco
Amgen stitched together two oncology moves in back-to-back days. First, it acquired Dark Blue Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $840 million, adding a preclinical AML program targeting MLLT1/3 protein degradation. Then Amgen struck a separate deal with Disco Pharmaceuticals, tapping its surfaceome mapping platform to uncover new cancer targets. That second pact could reach $618 million plus royalties. Big takeaway: Amgen is aggressively expanding its oncology toolbox from every angle.

✍️ Pfizer Maps Tumor Targets in an $865M Cartography Pact
Pfizer signed a discovery collaboration with Cartography Biosciences worth up to $865 million to identify tumor-selective antigens. Cartography will use its Atlas and Summit platforms to hunt targets that could unlock more precise cancer therapies. The upfront is modest, but the biobucks stack fast if milestones hit. Yet another sign that antigen discovery is having a moment.

🦠 GSK’s Hepatitis B ‘Functional Cure’ Delivers in Phase 3
GSK’s antisense drug bepirovirsen hit its primary endpoints in two phase 3 trials involving more than 1,800 patients with chronic hepatitis B. The trials showed sustained loss of surface antigen and undetectable viral DNA for at least 24 weeks post-treatment. That’s what researchers define as a functional cure. FDA filings are likely next, putting GSK in position to reshape a disease area with limited curative options.

🎁 Gilead Wrapped a Cancer Asset in Lipids.
Gilead signed a research pact worth up to $300 million to use OncoNano’s tumor-targeting lipid particles for one of its oncology programs.

📈 Alumis’ Psoriasis Data Sends Shares Flying.
Phase 3 trials of its TYK2 inhibitor showed 74% of patients hit PASI-75, doubling the stock premarket.

💸 Boehringer Doubles Down on Kidney Disease.
The pharma penned a $120M+ genomics collaboration with Variant Bio, its second kidney-focused deal in weeks.

👁️ Staar Surgical Escapes a $1.6B Buyout.
Shareholders rejected Alcon’s sweetened takeover offer, keeping the eye-lens maker independent.

💊 Roche Pays $100M to Bulletproof Its GLP-1 IP.
The company licensed oral GLP-1 patents from Structure Therapeutics to protect CT-996 from future litigation.

😳 Gene Therapy May Soon Happen at the Eye Doctor’s Office.
Ikarovec and VectorBuilder teamed up on an intravitreal eye gene therapy deal that could exceed $1 billion.

🧫 Basilea Joins the Fight Against Fungal Infections.
The Swiss biotech partnered with Prokaryotics to develop a first-in-class broad-spectrum antifungal.

Silicon Valley has never met a risk it didn’t want to optimize. Crypto, longevity hacks, microdosing, cold plunges. Now add self-injected peptides sourced from China to the list.

On the fringe of tech culture, biohacking has moved far beyond FDA-approved GLP-1s. Compounds like BPC-157 and TB-500 are touted for injury recovery. Oxytocin is pitched as a social enhancer. Epitalon gets marketed for sleep and longevity. Some users are even injecting retatrutide, a next-gen weight loss drug still in clinical trials. The science behind most of these uses ranges from thin to nonexistent.

The supply chain fueling this trend runs straight through China, now a major peptide manufacturing hub. U.S. imports of peptide and hormone compounds nearly doubled year over year in 2025, hitting roughly $328 million in the first three quarters alone. Many arrive as powders labeled “for research use only.” Users mix them with sterile water and self-inject using insulin syringes ordered online. Personally, trusting a “sterile” syringe shipped by an Amazon reseller named Chad69 feels bold.

Cost is a major driver. FDA-approved GLP-1s can run over $1,000 per month. Gray-market peptides often cost a fifth of that. One buyer described paying $50 to $100 per kit, then spending $250 to ship samples to a European lab for purity testing. No biology background. Guidance sourced from Reddit, podcasts, and ChatGPT.

The FDA has warned that many peptides pose serious safety risks, citing impurities and immune reactions. Enforcement is spotty, personal use remains legal, and clinicians are increasingly alarmed. Doctors call the trend “unfounded and reckless.” Others see it as a predictable outcome of high costs, slow trials, and a culture addicted to self-optimization.

Peptide raves, hacker house injections, and mix-your-own workshops now exist in the Bay Area. U.S. Pharma, meanwhile, has largely stayed away from the space, wary of low IP defensibility and unclear disease targets. The result is a thriving gray market where the scientific method is optional and the risk tolerance is… aggressive.

That’s how much Johnson & Johnson spent on Tremfya TV ads in December alone, making it the biggest drug advertiser of the month as pharma closed out the year by flooding the airwaves.

Here’s what biotech Reddit is talking about:

🎓 What skills actually matter in biotech right now?
A third-year bio major asked Reddit where to focus. The top answer wasn’t a certification or coding language. It was networking. Others added that knowing your company’s business matters just as much as lab skills. If you don’t understand how your product sells, scales, or survives, don’t expect rapid promotion.

😤 Anyone else just… over it?
Another thread captured burnout from workers watching headcount shrink while pipelines and revenue grow. More work, same pay, fewer people. Veterans reminisced about when companies were run by scientists instead of PE firms. The consensus: the leverage is firmly with employers, and everyone feels it.

🤖 Soley Therapeutics Raised $200M for AI-Driven Cancer Drugs.
The biotech will push its AML program into the clinic and scale its cell stress sensing platform.

🧠 Naox Cleared the First In-Ear EEG Device.
Its FDA-cleared ear-worn sensor could replace bulky scalp electrodes for brain monitoring.

👵 Canadian Startup Built Airbags for Your Hips.
Azimut Medical’s smart pants inflate during a fall to prevent hip fractures in seniors.

💡 Rakuten Medical Lights the Way to a 2028 FDA Filing
Rakuten Medical raised another $100 million to advance its photoimmunotherapy platform, which uses light-activated drug conjugates to selectively destroy cancer cells. The payload stays inactive until physicians flip the switch with a medical device.

🪐 January 8, 1942 – Stephen Hawking Was Born
From black holes to bestselling science books, Hawking reshaped how the public thinks about the universe, gravity, and time itself.

That’s all for today.

If you’re heading to the JPM Healthcare Conference next week, stretch your inbox muscles now. The biopharma news cycle is about to go full peptide rave.

👋 See you next week.

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