👋 Hey, let’s get into it. For years, pancreatic cancer was where promising drugs went to die. Then at ASCO in May, Revolution Medicines presented data that earned a standing ovation.

Yesterday, the FDA made it official. Rasonque, a once-daily RAS inhibitor, is approved for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer after extending median overall survival from 6.7 months with chemotherapy to 13.2 months in Phase 3.

The label does not require an identified RAS mutation, broadening its reach. It is not a cure, but the FDA apparently agreed with the room, delivering its decision 6.5 months ahead of schedule.

If you want to stand up at your desk and clap before reading the rest of the newsletter, please feel free.

🛡️ Boston Scientific Cyberattack Disrupts Global Order Processing
Boston Scientific is restoring systems after a cyberattack disrupted operations worldwide, including applications used to process and ship customer orders. The medtech giant detected the incident Tuesday and brought in outside cybersecurity specialists, but it still has no timeline for full recovery. Its filing did not identify the attacker, mention ransomware or confirm stolen data, and the company has not determined whether the financial impact will be material. The problem has already moved beyond IT and into the supply chain, where a prolonged outage could squeeze hospital inventories and quarterly revenue.

💰 McKesson Agrees to Buy Precision Medicine Group for $2.25B
McKesson agreed to acquire Precision Medicine Group for about $2.25 billion, adding biomarker laboratories, complex-trial operations, health economics, market access and commercialization services to its Oncology & Multispecialty segment. In other words, the drug distributor wants a seat much earlier in a medicine’s lifecycle, before the product ever reaches a specialty pharmacy. Precision already works with emerging biotechs across development and launch. The deal still needs regulatory clearance, and neither side disclosed a closing timeline or expected synergies, but the strategy is clear: McKesson is moving upstream from shipping therapies to helping develop and launch them.

🏭 Bristol Myers Ends Cellares CAR-T Pact Worth Up to $380M
Bristol Myers Squibb terminated its Cellares manufacturing partnership after concluding the startup’s automated Cell Shuttle could not support Breyanzi’s approved commercial-scale process. Cellares disputes that assessment, saying the platform has already produced GMP-compliant cell therapy in an FDA-regulated clinical program. The 2024 pact carried up to $380 million in payments and reserved capacity across the U.S., Europe and Japan, and its loss will trigger roughly 100 layoffs. The decision applies only to Breyanzi’s approved process, not every Cell Shuttle program. TL;DR: Breakups are hard, especially when the relationship was worth up to $380 million. Something we can all relate to.

⚡ SK Bets Up to $795M on Biohaven’s Epilepsy Platform
SK Biopharmaceuticals will pay Biohaven $350 million at closing and another $50 million next year for worldwide rights to its Kv7 ion-channel platform, led by Phase 2/3 epilepsy candidate opakalim. Additional milestones and assumed obligations could lift the total to $795 million, before royalties. The timing is gutsy: RISE3 topline data are expected later this year, so SK is committing serious cash before seeing the decisive report card. If opakalim succeeds, SK can sell it through the U.S. epilepsy infrastructure built for Xcopri, while Biohaven gains non-dilutive capital and sheds most future development spending.

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📟 FDA Authorizes Abbott’s First Glucose-and-Ketone Wearable
FDA authorized Abbott’s Libre Duo 10 Day, the first wearable to continuously track glucose and ketones, offering earlier warning of diabetic ketoacidosis.

🚀 ARCH and Population Health Launch Sentivera in Up-to-$1.5B Deal
Metsera’s backers launched Sentivera around an unnamed Haisco inflammation asset, paying $40 million upfront while most of the $1.5 billion remains contingent.

✅ FDA Moves Jazz’s Ziihera Into First-Line Gastroesophageal Cancer
FDA approved Jazz’s Ziihera with chemotherapy and BeOne’s Tevimbra for selected HER2-positive gastroesophageal cancers after improving median overall survival by 7.2 months in Phase 3.

🎯 Summit and Akeso’s Ivonescimab Beats AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi in Phase 3 Biliary-Cancer Trial
Ivonescimab improved survival in a 682-patient trial in China, but Summit and Akeso released no efficacy or safety numbers.

🩸 FDA Approves J&J’s Imaavy for Warm Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia
J&J’s Imaavy became the first FDA-approved treatment for warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia after producing durable hemoglobin responses in 24% versus 8% on placebo.

📉 Spyre Shelves RA Monotherapy, Shares Sink 13%
Only SPY072’s low dose met the Phase 2 primary endpoint, and neither dose delivered enough benefit to clear Spyre’s development bar.

Washington keeps staring at China’s licensing scoreboard. Rep. Nathaniel Moran thinks it should study the ground game. Chinese biotechs did not suddenly start dominating deal tables because Western pharma discovered WeChat. They spent years building faster development timelines, dense clinical networks, manufacturing capacity and a pipeline full of assets pharma needs before patent cliffs arrive.

Evaluate projects that China-origin assets will represent more than two-thirds of global licensing-deal value in 2026, up from roughly half last year and under 5% five years ago. MassBio counts 7,105 candidates in China’s pipeline after 36.2% year-over-year growth, now ahead of Europe. Its advanced-modality pipeline grew 26.3%, compared with 4% in the U.S. Western pharma is buying the output of that system.

The clinical engine is equally important. China-headquartered sponsors ran 32% of global trials in 2025, up from 2% in 2009. But 88% stayed entirely within China, and Chinese sponsors accounted for only 5% of U.S. trials. That exposes a real weakness: Chinese companies still struggle to recruit executives and clinical teams with international regulatory and commercialization experience.

The U.S. response is expanding beyond procurement restrictions. The bipartisan Biotech Investment National Security Act would bring certain U.S. licensing deals, joint ventures and equity investments involving covered Chinese biotech entities under Treasury review. The Senate version remains in committee, so this is a proposal, not law. Meanwhile, Jiangsu province just pledged support for global licensing, joint development and overseas acquisitions. Everyone appears to have noticed the chessboard.

The collision is obvious: Western pharma needs new assets as patents expire, while lawmakers are less comfortable with where those assets originate. Screening deals may protect sensitive technology, but it could also make pipeline replacement slower and more expensive. The licensing boom is only the scoreboard. China spent years building the stadium.

Not exactly a stop-you-mid-sip number on its own. But here’s the weird part: Massachusetts biopharma employment fell 3.1% to 113,503 jobs in 2025, while venture funding rose 25% to $3.45 billion in first-half 2026. Different reporting periods, yes, but capital and headcount are clearly not moving in lockstep.

Here’s what biotech Redditors are talking about:

😰 The Layoff Survival Guide Includes Cake
A CDMO worker expecting their first layoff asked Reddit what to do when the meeting arrives. The advice came in three phases: feel the shock, secure the paperwork, then activate the network. Commenters recommended confirming severance and health coverage, saving personal employment records, moving logins away from company email and collecting references before access disappears. Then came the recovery plan: structure the job search, take a walk and, apparently, procure cake.

🌤️ Biotech Reddit Attempts Optimism
An early-career startup employee, burned out after a pharma program ended and 20 colleagues were laid off, asked Reddit for positive biotech stories. There were no replies…just kidding. Commenters offered supportive managers, better pay with experience, meaningful science and friendships forged at small companies. The emotional winner came from someone who helped make a vaccine their own child later received. Nobody called biotech easy, but a few reminded everyone why they stayed.

💉 Pennsylvania Reports First U.S. Measles-Associated Deaths of 2026
Pennsylvania confirmed two unvaccinated Lancaster County residents as its first measles-associated deaths in 35 years and the nation’s first of 2026.

💸 Employers Pull Back on GLP-1 Coverage as Costs Rise
Obesity-drug coverage fell from 72% of surveyed employers in 2025 to 60% in 2026, with 14% dropping or planning further cuts for 2027.

⚠️ Vitruvias Recalls Superpotent Thyroid Tablets and Ceases Operations
Vitruvias recalled 1,955 sold units of potentially superpotent thyroid tablets while its website separately announced the company had ceased operations.

💊 WonderTx Wants AI to Replace Needles With Pills
WonderTx has a pitch that practically writes itself: use AI to turn biology already validated by injectable drugs into different oral small molecules. Founder Abraham Heifets previously co-founded Atomwise, and the Y Combinator startup says its models found experimentally confirmed binders across four undisclosed targets without target-specific training data. Intriguing, but very early. WonderTx has disclosed no targets, development candidates, peer-reviewed results or clinical timeline. Replacing needles with pills is a compelling pitch. Turning four undisclosed binders into actual medicines is the considerably harder part.

🦟 August 27, 1900: A Doctor Lets a Yellow-Fever Mosquito Bite Him
On this day in 1900, U.S. Army physician James Carroll let a mosquito that had fed on a yellow-fever patient bite him during experiments in Cuba. He became severely ill and nearly died, helping revive Carlos Finlay’s then-disputed theory that mosquitoes transmitted the disease. Later, more controlled experiments supplied the stronger evidence and transformed vector control. The discovery changed public health. The protocol, involving infected mosquitoes and limited consent, would cause a modern research ethics board to burst into flames.

If you’re still standing at your desk clapping for Revolution Medicines, first, our hats are off to you. Second, you can stop now. Third, if you skipped step two, revisit the Community Vibes layoff survival guide. Your coworkers have probably filed a formal complaint by now, so you may need the section about securing your paperwork. Possibly the cake, too.

That’s all for today. See you Tuesday for the next issue. 👋

✍️ Today’s email was brought to you by Josh Martin. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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