👋 Good morning! You know those meetings where leadership says, “Be honest, all opinions matter, we really want your expert feedback”?

And then you actually give it.

And then a few weeks later you are unemployed for not “aligning with the company vision.”

Welcome to today’s opening act.

The former director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., is suing the Trump administration health officials over her September firing, claiming it violated whistleblower protections, due process, federal civil service law, and her First Amendment rights. She is seeking reinstatement and back pay.

Translation: We want your expert opinion, as long as it matches ours.

⚖️ Big Pharma Cuts Drug Price Deals With Trump (And No One Fainted This Time).
Nine major drugmakers—Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis, Genentech and Sanofi—agreed to lower select U.S. drug prices in exchange for tariff relief. It’s not a sweeping pricing overhaul, but a clear signal that pricing pressure hasn’t disappeared, it’s just being negotiated behind closed doors. One White House meeting at a time.

💰 BioMarin Goes Last-Minute Christmas Shopping With a $4.8B Amicus Buy.
BioMarin is acquiring Amicus Therapeutics in an all-cash deal priced at $14.50 per share, a 33% premium, which investors liked. The prize is nearly $600M in annual revenue, two FDA-approved rare disease drugs, and a late-stage kidney disease asset. Less moonshot, more earnings-call confidence.

🌏 AstraZeneca Strikes Again in China With a $2B KRAS Bet.
AstraZeneca is paying $100M upfront and up to $2B in milestones to license a pan-KRAS inhibitor from China’s Jacobio Pharma. It’s the latest move in AZ’s China deal spree, underscoring just how central Chinese biotech has become to global oncology pipelines, even amid rising geopolitical tension.

💊 Lilly’s Obesity Pill Tells Injectables: “You Can Sit This One Out.”
Eli Lilly’s oral GLP-1 candidate orforglipron helped patients maintain most of their weight loss after switching off injectable therapies. With FDA filings already underway, Lilly is turning the obesity arms race into a convenience war, and needles may be losing ground.

🙄 Novo Fires Back With a Combo Shot in the Obesity Arms Race.
Novo Nordisk filed CagriSema, a once-weekly injectable combining amylin and GLP-1, aiming to be first with a dual-mechanism obesity therapy. The move comes just days after Lilly’s oral data, making it clear this rivalry is accelerating, not cooling off. Lilly currently sports a $1 trillion+ market cap… Novo has some catching up to do.

🧬 Ipsen Doubles Down on ADCs With a $1B Preclinical Bet.
Ipsen signed a deal worth up to $1.06B for a preclinical LRRC15-targeting ADC from Simcere Zaiming. Human data can wait… pharma’s appetite for antibody-drug conjugates clearly can’t.

⚠️ Daiichi and Merck Hit the Brakes After Deaths in ADC Trial.
A global phase 3 study of Daiichi Sankyo and Merck’s B7-H3 ADC has been partially halted after an unexpected number of patient deaths. It’s a stark reminder that even the hottest oncology platforms still come with real clinical risk.

💊 Takeda’s Psoriasis Pill Clears Phase 3 and Eyes a 2026 FDA Filing.
Takeda’s psoriasis drug zasocitinib delivered strong phase 3 results, positioning it as a real challenger to Bristol Myers Squibb’s Sotyktu. With a 2026 filing in sight, the TYK2 race just got a lot more crowded.

🛡️ Biosecure Act — Signed.
The Biosecure Act became law via the 2025 defense bill, formally restricting U.S. agencies from working with certain Chinese biotech suppliers.

🦠 Moderna — CEPI to the Rescue.
CEPI committed up to $54M to advance Moderna’s mRNA bird flu vaccine after HHS funding stalled.

📉 Insmed — Expansion Axed.
Insmed dropped its Brinsupri expansion after a Phase 2 miss where placebo beat treatment, sending shares down 16%. One biotech analyst was quoted saying Brinsupri “failed spectacularly.”

🧬 Windward Bio — Pipeline Shopping.
Novo-backed Windward Bio grabbed ex-China rights to a clinical immunology bispecific in a deal worth up to $700M.

☢️ Bicycle Therapeutics — Securing Supply.
Bicycle locked in up to 15 years of reprocessed uranium to support its growing radioconjugate pipeline for treating cancer.

❤️ Cytokinetics — FDA Yes.
Cytokinetics secured FDA approval for its cardiac myosin inhibitor, teeing up a showdown with BMS.

🏭 Samsung Biologics — Stateside Move.
Samsung Bio paid $280M for GSK’s Maryland manufacturing site, marking its first U.S. production footprint.

🧠 Shionogi — ALS All-In.
Shionogi agreed to pay $2.5B upfront for global rights to Radicava, betting big on an ALS franchise with ~$700M in annual sales.

🧪 Boehringer — Kidney Bet.
Boehringer Ingelheim partnered with Rectify Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up to $448M to target chronic kidney disease, cementing CKD as pharma’s favorite long game.

For decades, pharma marketing followed a familiar script: run a TV ad, tell patients to ask their doctor, wait weeks, then hope insurance doesn’t ruin everything. That model is starting to look… very 2015.

Enter direct-to-patient (DTP) programs. Over the past year, Amgen, BMS, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Novartis and Boehringer Ingelheim have rolled out platforms letting patients click an ad, book a same-day telehealth visit, and access discounted meds with minimal friction. Lilly, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk got there first. Everyone else is sprinting to catch up.

Why now? Because the old funnel leaks. Pharma spends billions on awareness, but once a patient leaves the screen and enters the healthcare system, visibility drops to zero. DTP flips that. Companies get cleaner data, faster conversion, and a direct relationship with the end user. No waiting room magazines required.

Policy pressure is also accelerating the shift. The Trump administration has openly pushed manufacturers toward direct purchasing, with the TrumpRx platform set to steer patients toward DTP channels starting in January. When the White House starts nudging distribution models, industry listens.

The bigger strategic play is durability. Lilly CEO Dave Ricks has floated the idea that strong DTP brands could outlive patent cliffs by keeping patients loyal even after generics arrive. Think less “ask your doctor” and more “tell your doctor.” Not great news for middlemen. Very good news for pharma margins.

Bottom line: DTC raised awareness. DTP closes the sale. And pharma is learning it doesn’t have to share the customer anymore.

That’s how much pharma and healthcare is estimated to spend on digital advertising in 2025, blowing past traditional media at $7.9B. By 2026, the gap will widen even further according to most estimates. Notably in 2025, it will be the first time social media ad spend overtakes linear TV.

Don’t be shocked when drug influencers become a thing. Supplements walked so prescriptions could run.

Biotech Reddit remains undefeated.

• Bored at work. One scientist wonders why they’re always done by noon while their manager works nights and weekends. The crowd response: enjoy it, stop asking for more work, and quietly increase your ROI without raising your hand. The key to success in big pharma… look busy.

• Over on Pfizer layoffs Reddit, morale is… not great. Posters debate whether leadership squandered pandemic luck, criticize the board for rubber-stamping decisions, and worry that the worst cost cuts are still coming in 2026. Confidence is low. Sarcasm is high.

Consensus vibe: survive, adapt, and maybe don’t volunteer for anything unless it comes with equity.

🧪 GlucoModicum — Needle-Free Patch. Finnish medtech launches a temporary glucose monitor for Type 2 diabetes that skips the finger prick.

🤖 Moon Surgical — Robo Upgrade. Maestro surgical robots now stream data over 5G with AI-powered insights.

🌿 Cannabis — Schedule Shuffle. Trump reclassifies marijuana, opening doors for federally insured research and pharma dollars.

📈 Aktis Oncology — IPO Ready. Radiopharma specialist files to raise $346M to fuel cancer pipeline with big-name pharma backing.

💴 Insilico Medicine — AI Goes Public. AI-powered drug developer eyes $292M Hong Kong IPO to keep turning data into molecules.

🧠 Syremis Therapeutics
Founded by Karuna Therapeutics veterans and launched with $165M, Syremis is taking aim at schizophrenia and psychotic disorders. Serious capital. Serious intent.

🧬 Orum Therapeutics
Orum raised ~$100M to advance degrader-antibody conjugates, blending two hot drug modalities into one. ADCs weren’t enough. Pharma wants upgrades.

😬 December 23, 1983 - Scientists, including Carl Sagan, introduced the concept of nuclear winter. Grim science, terrible timing, unforgettable paper. Anyway, enjoy the holidays.

Enjoy your three days off if you’re a federal worker. If you’re not, enjoy staring at your screen on Dec. 24 and Dec. 26 pretending to work. No one’s fooled.

With the Christmas holiday on Thursday, we won’t be releasing a new issue that day, but we’ll be back at it next Tuesday. See you next week 👋

May your data be clean and your meetings be emails.

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