Daily Snap - 3. November 2025

Author

Joachim Eeckhout
November 03, 2025

 

Good morning! In what’s shaping up to be the biggest pharma drama of 2025, Pfizer has sued Metsera and Novo Nordisk, claiming Novo’s surprise $9B bid for the obesity drug developer breaks a buyout deal Pfizer already had in place. Pfizer is arguing that Novo’s move is “reckless” and even illegal, while Novo insists its offer is fair game. Analysts say Pfizer is now “playing the pressure side,” leaning on antitrust arguments and waving the “American challenger vs. dominant player” flag to rally support in D.C. Because apparently, the GLP-1 market wasn’t competitive enough.

Enjoy today’s read!

—Joachim E. 

SNIPPETS

What’s happening in biotech today?

👑Royalty rescue: Cash-strapped biotech Nanobiotix has secured $71 million in non-dilutive funding from HealthCare Royalty to support development of its Johnson & Johnson-partnered cancer drug, JNJ-1900 (NBTXR3), which is in phase 3 trials for head and neck squamous cell cancer. The deal provides $50 million upfront, with an additional $21 million contingent on certain conditions, and will be repaid through a share of future royalties and milestone payments. This follows earlier efforts by Nanobiotix to ease financial strain by modifying its agreement with J&J. The funding is expected to sustain operations through early 2028.

💾 Kidney code: Helex has raised $3.5 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by pi Ventures, with participation from SOSV, Bluehill Capital, and other investors, bringing its total funding to over $6 million. The company is developing programmable, non-viral lipid nanoparticle therapies to deliver gene-editing treatments directly to kidney cells, with a lead program targeting autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). This single-dose therapy aims to slow or halt disease progression by addressing mutations in PKD1 or PKD2 genes. The funding will support IND-enabling studies and pipeline expansion using AI-driven drug design and delivery technologies.

🤕 Pain drain: Eli Lilly has quietly removed an experimental pain drug targeting the P2X7 protein from its pipeline after mid-stage trial results failed to meet the company’s internal success criteria. Originally licensed from Asahi Kasei Pharma, the drug was intended to treat conditions such as osteoarthritis, chronic back pain, and diabetic nerve pain by inhibiting inflammation-related signaling. This marks the second pain program Lilly has shelved in 2025, following the earlier discontinuation of mazisotine. Despite these setbacks, Lilly continues to invest in non-opioid pain therapies, including recent acquisitions and early-stage candidates targeting Nav1.8, AT2R, and epiregulin pathways.

✂️Pipeline pruning: Bristol Myers Squibb has removed two clinical programs from its internal pipeline as part of a broader $1.5 billion cost-saving initiative. The first, MRTX0902, is a phase 1/2 SOS1 inhibitor acquired through BMS’s 2023 $5.8 billion buyout of Mirati Therapeutics and was being studied alone and with adagrasib (Krazati) for solid tumors. The second, EXS4318, is a PKC-theta inhibitor from a 2021 partnership with Exscientia—now merged with Recursion—and had first-in-class potential in immunology and inflammation. While both assets were cut, BMS continues development on other programs from the same deals, amid ongoing leadership changes and a focus on neuroscience.

❌Trial drop: Gilead Sciences has discontinued a phase 1 trial of the HIV drug candidate GS-1219 after selecting GS-3242 as the preferred asset for its long-acting capsid inhibitor lenacapavir in a planned twice-yearly injectable treatment. The decision, shared during the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call, reflects Gilead’s strategy of testing multiple candidates to identify optimal combinations for varying dosing schedules. Lenacapavir, already approved as Sunlenca for treatment and as Yeztugo for prevention, is also being studied in several other regimens, including weekly and daily oral treatments and quarterly injections. Meanwhile, two other HIV candidates remain under FDA-imposed clinical holds due to safety concerns.

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