👋 Hey, let’s get into it. A giant liver just landed in Philadelphia. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals recently parked a 20-foot-tall inflatable liver in a Philadelphia park for Global Fatty Liver Awareness Day. Visitors can actually walk through the organ and learn about the progression of liver disease. The campaign comes after a survey found that 35% of Americans believe they can live without a liver. Spoiler: They cannot.

It's a clever boots-on-the-ground awareness play for Madrigal's MASH drug Rezdiffra. Let's just hope nobody in Pfizer’s Viagra marketing department gets inspired.

📅 Quick programming note: there will be no BioNucleus Briefing on Tuesday, June 23 while we're away on vacation. We’ll be back on Thursday, June 25.

🇩🇪 Germany Reverses Course on Drug Discounts After Lilly and Boehringer Pull Billions
Germany is reportedly rethinking its healthcare reform plans after Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim pulled major investment commitments from the country. Reuters reports the government will scrap variable drug discounts and replace them with fixed reductions, giving pharma companies more predictability. The original proposal tied pricing to national healthcare spending, creating uncertainty for manufacturers. The shift follows Boehringer shelving a €900 million ($1 billion) expansion and Lilly cutting back a major investment. Pfizer has since warned it is reviewing its German plans as well.

🏆 Takeda’s Psoriasis Drug Beats BMS’s Sotyktu
Takeda’s TYK2 inhibitor zasocitinib outperformed Bristol Myers Squibb’s Sotyktu in a head-to-head Phase 3 psoriasis trial. More than 35% of patients achieved complete skin clearance at Week 16, over 2.5x the rate seen with Sotyktu. The drug also won all key secondary endpoints, including 90% clearance and physician-assessed disease scores. Takeda paid $4 billion upfront for the asset in 2022, and these results strengthen its position ahead of a planned 2027 launch.

☀️ J&J Invests $1B in Florida to Expand Contact Lens Manufacturing
Johnson & Johnson is investing more than $1 billion in Jacksonville, Florida to expand production of its Acuvue contact lens franchise. The project includes a new distribution facility along with upgraded manufacturing and packaging technologies. J&J currently produces more than 1.7 billion Acuvue lenses annually for U.S. patients. The investment forms part of the company's broader $55 billion domestic manufacturing initiative as large healthcare and pharmaceutical companies expand U.S.-based production capacity, a push that also aligns with efforts to ease pressure from the Trump administration's tariff and trade policies.

📊 Lilly’s $2.3B Ajax Deal Delivers Promising Results
Eli Lilly’s first clinical data from its Ajax Therapeutics acquisition show strong early results in myelofibrosis. In a Phase 1 study, 70% of patients achieved at least a 35% reduction in spleen volume, a key disease marker. The selective JAK2 inhibitor also showed symptom improvement and a manageable safety profile. While early, the data suggest Lilly may have a credible challenger to Incyte’s long-standing dominance in the indication.

💻 100+ ChatGPT Prompts to Revolutionize Your Day
Discover how you can leverage ChatGPT to boost efficiency, streamline tasks, and stay ahead in your industry. Supercharge your productivity with HubSpot's comprehensive guide.

🤑 Novartis’ $12B Avidity Bet Notches Early Win for RNA Drug
Del-brax met its primary endpoint in a muscle-wasting disease known as FSHD, strengthening confidence in Novartis’ $12B acquisition and supporting advancement toward later-stage development and potential regulatory pathway clarity.

🩸 Lilly’s Jaypirca Cuts Progression Risk by 45% in CLL
Adding Jaypirca to venetoclax and rituximab reduced progression or death risk by 45% in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) patients.

✂️ Intellia Expands CRISPR Win With Phase 3 Success
Lonvo-z met key secondary endpoints in hereditary angioedema, reinforcing durability and efficacy signals for the in vivo CRISPR gene-editing therapy.

✅ Sanofi Expands Tzield Into Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes
FDA approval expands Tzield to newly diagnosed pediatric patients ages 8–17, slowing insulin decline in early-stage type 1 diabetes progression.

📈 Kardigan Targets $320M IPO
Sweater company Cardiovascular biotech Kardigan outlined pricing for its IPO, targeting roughly $320 million in proceeds to fund pipeline development and expansion plans.

🎯 J&J Talvey Combo Cuts Myeloma Progression Risk by 72%
Talvey plus Darzalex reduced progression or death risk by up to 72% in relapsed multiple myeloma, showing strong earlier-line treatment potential.

🥇 Merck Wins Keytruda Combo Approval for Kidney Cancer
FDA approved Merck’s Welireg-Keytruda combination for adjuvant kidney cancer, marking first PD-1 and HIF-2α dual regimen approval in this setting.

💸 Amgen Ordered to Pay $20M in Antibody Patent Case
A Delaware jury found Amgen willfully infringed Harbour BioMed patents, awarding $20.2 million in damages with potential for enhanced penalties.

If biotech Reddit feels like one giant support group for job seekers lately, the numbers suggest there's a reason.

A recent BioSpace poll found that only 23% of biopharma professionals expect the job market to rebound in 2026. Most respondents don't see meaningful improvement arriving until 2027 or later.

That's a little surprising when you consider all the activity happening elsewhere. IPOs are back. M&A activity is healthy. Venture funding has improved. Lilly alone has announced 10 acquisitions this year.

So why doesn't hiring feel better?

According to Mizuho biotech analyst Graig Suvannavejh, the answer is simple: companies have become obsessed with operating lean. Investors are rewarding efficiency, runway preservation and disciplined spending. Adding headcount isn't nearly as fashionable as it was during the biotech boom years of 2019 through 2022.

The result is a strange dynamic where capital is flowing, deals are happening and some companies are growing, yet overall hiring remains sluggish. New companies are often recruiting experienced talent from elsewhere rather than creating large numbers of net-new jobs.

There are some encouraging signs. Recruiters report increased demand for consultants, contractors and clinical operations professionals. Companies appear more willing to make strategic hires than they were a year ago.

Still, several recruiters noted that some hiring decisions are already being delayed as companies reassess budgets.

The consensus seems to be that biotech hiring isn't broken. It's thawing. Just slowly.

Unfortunately for job seekers, "slowly" hits a little different when you're the one looking for a job and the same bills keep showing up every month.

That's the year-over-year increase in artificial intelligence use cases at the FDA between fiscal years 2024 and 2025. According to a Bipartisan Policy Center analysis, AI adoption is accelerating across HHS, with the CDC, CMS and NIH also reporting substantial growth. Most projects remain in pre-deployment stages, suggesting federal health agencies may just be getting started with AI.

Here’s what biotech Redditors are talking about:

📉 Reddit Debates Why Drug Approvals Per R&D Dollar Keep Falling
A biotech Redditor shared a chart showing the number of approved drugs generated per $1 billion of inflation-adjusted R&D spending has steadily declined since the 1950s. Commenters blamed soaring clinical trial costs, growing regulatory complexity and increasingly expensive preclinical development. Others noted modern medicines face much higher safety and efficacy standards than drugs approved decades ago. In other words, fewer approvals per dollar doesn't necessarily mean worse science. It may simply mean the bar got much higher.

🎙️ Is Anyone Talking About Science Anymore?
One Reddit thread asked a surprisingly simple question: is there an active biotech community focused on science rather than job market complaints? The discussion quickly turned into jokes about graduate students, difficult PIs and the reality that industry science tends to be confidential and hard to openly discuss online. One commenter summarized science social media perfectly: "My PI didn't say hello to me in the hallway today. Should I quit science?"

💭 If enough readers are interested, we'd consider creating a BioNucleus industry discussion community. Reply and let us know. Seriously.

😳 Parents Paying $20K for Unproven Autism Treatments
Scientists are raising concerns as families spend thousands on unapproved stem cell procedures promoted as autism treatments.

👽 LambdaVision Builds Artificial Retinas…in Space
The startup is using microgravity to manufacture retinal implants for vision restoration research.

🪓 Genentech Restructures Research Teams in Latest Layoffs
Genentech is reportedly cutting VP roles and restructuring research units, including shutting down select discovery teams.

🇪🇺 European Coalition Pushes Unified Drug Policy
The Beneluxa Initiative wants a coordinated European pharmaceutical strategy as pressure builds around global drug pricing.

🏙️ City Therapeutics Raises $99.5M to Expand RNAi Beyond the Liver
City Therapeutics closed a $99.5 million Series B to advance RNA interference therapies into tissues beyond the liver. Founded by RNAi veterans with roots at Alnylam, the company believes the next major wave of RNAi innovation will come from extra-hepatic delivery. Its platform uses smaller, more flexible RNA molecules designed to reach challenging targets such as the central nervous system. Lead candidate data targeting Factor XI are expected later this year.

🌽 June 16, 1902 — The Queen of Jumping Genes Is Born
Long before genetic engineering became possible, Barbara McClintock discovered that genes could move around within a genome. Her work studying corn chromosomes led to the discovery of transposable elements, or "jumping genes," a finding that challenged established scientific thinking for decades. In 1983, she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the breakthrough. Today, nearly every geneticist learns concepts built on the foundation she established more than half a century ago.

FDA AI use is up 148%, so we’re clearly getting closer to the future. Now if someone could bring even 10% of that to the DMV, that would be real progress.

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

📆 Quick reminder: there will be no BioNucleus Briefing on Tuesday, June 23 while we're away on vacation. We’ll be back on Thursday, June 25.

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