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Servier acquires muscular dystrophy drug for $2.65 billion & Lilly signs $3.06 billion deal with Haisco

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Joachim Eeckhout & Eduardo Longoria
June 02, 2026

Good morning. In vivo CAR-T is heating up, and consolidation is becoming part of the story. T-CURX has acquired fellow German biotech Pantherna, combining its CAR-T work with Pantherna’s mRNA and lipid nanoparticles expertise. That could give T-CURX the building blocks for an in vivo CAR-T portfolio, in a field where many of the early players have already been acquired or consolidated. The race is on.

— Joachim E.

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SNAPSHOT

Servier is paying up to $2.65 billion to bet on treatment for Becker and Duchenne muscular dystrophy

A blonde woman working out at the gym

Servier has agreed to acquire sevasemten and the muscular dystrophy business built around it from Edgewise Therapeutics for up to $2.65 billion. The deal includes $1.55 billion upfront and up to $1.1 billion in milestone payments. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2026.

Why it matters: The acquisition gives Servier an immediate foothold in rare neuromuscular diseases and access to a late-stage drug candidate that could become the first approved therapy specifically for Becker muscular dystrophy.

Backstory: Becker and Duchenne muscular dystrophy are rare genetic disorders caused by deficiencies in dystrophin, a protein critical for muscle function. Current treatment strategies have largely focused on mutation-specific dystrophin-restoration approaches, including exon-skipping therapies developed by companies such as Sarepta Therapeutics.

Zoom in: Sevasemten is an oral, first-in-class fast skeletal myosin inhibitor. Instead of restoring dystrophin, it aims to reduce muscle damage caused by contraction stress. Long-term extension data suggest patients maintained stable functional scores for more than three years with a favorable safety profile.

What’s next: Top-line results are expected in Q4 2026. Servier will focus on completing late-stage development and preparing for potential regulatory submissions if trial results are positive.

SNIPPETS

What’s happening in biotech today?

🤝 Licensing spree: Eli Lilly has signed a broad research and development partnership with China’s Haisco Pharmaceutical covering up to five undisclosed innovative target programs across multiple therapeutic areas, in a deal worth as much as $3.06 billion. Haisco will receive $87 million in upfront and near-term payments and could earn up to $2.97 billion in milestones plus tiered single-digit royalties, while Lilly will lead development from Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies onward and hold either global rights or rights outside Greater China depending on the program. The agreement reflects Lilly’s ongoing strategy of expanding its pipeline through licensing and acquisitions.

🧬 SBS expansion: Eli Lilly has also licensed Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s phase 2 GLP-2 agonist sonefpeglutide for all markets outside Korea in a deal worth up to $1.26 billion, including $75 million upfront and up to $1.185 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus royalties. The drug is being developed for short bowel syndrome (SBS), a rare condition caused by significant loss of the small intestine, and is designed as a long-acting monthly treatment that could offer a more convenient alternative to Takeda’s daily-injection therapy Gattex. Hanmi will complete the ongoing phase 2 trial while Lilly evaluates further development based on existing data.

🎉 Pancreas win: New Phase 3 data presented at ASCO showed that Revolution Medicines’ experimental KRAS inhibitor daraxonrasib delivered unprecedented benefits for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, a disease historically resistant to treatment. In patients whose tumors carried RAS G12 mutations and had progressed after prior therapy, the drug nearly doubled median overall survival compared with chemotherapy, extending it to 13.2 months versus about 6.6–6.7 months, while also doubling progression-free survival to roughly 7.2–7.3 months. Investigators described the results as “landscape-changing,” noting that this is the first time a clinical trial has shown median survival exceeding one year in pancreatic cancer following a drug intervention. The findings strengthen Revolution’s position as a leader in KRAS-targeted therapies and support expectations that daraxonrasib could become a major commercial product.

📈 Bispecific boost: Akeso and Summit Therapeutics reported that their bispecific cancer drug ivonescimab significantly improved overall survival in a China-based Phase 3 trial involving newly diagnosed patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. When combined with chemotherapy, ivonescimab reduced the risk of death by 34% compared with a regimen of chemotherapy plus the immunotherapy Tevimbra, extending median survival to 28 months versus 24 months. Experts described the results as an important validation of the emerging PD-1/VEGF inhibitor class, which aims to improve on current immunotherapies while maintaining manageable side effects.

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