Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Bristol Meyers Squibb

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Good morning. Please take a moment today to read this story from my colleague Eric Boodman, who spent a year investigating how doctors push sickle cell patients to undergo unwanted sterilizations. This is the first story in a new series from STAT called Coercive Care.

The must-know this morning

• AstraZeneca said it plans to deliver Total revenue $80 billion by 2030, compared to $45.8 billion last year. The new growth will be fueled by the launch of 20 new drugs before the end of the decade, the pharmaceutical giant said at an investor event.
• Bristol Myers Squibb said the FDA’s decision date for a subcutaneously injected version of its cancer drug Opdivo moved on until December 29. Previously it was February 28, 2025. The new Opdivo formulation is made using drug delivery technology from Halozyme.
• GSK said a new asthma treatment that could be administered just once every six months succeeded in two Phase 3 trials.

The immunology funding streak continues

AltruBio said this morning that it has raised $225 million in a Series B round to promote a drug to treat ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease.

The biotech reverses an approach used in a type of cancer drug called an immune checkpoint inhibitor, which boosts the immune system to help patients fight deadly cancers. AltruBio develops a checkpoint Amplifierwith the aim of breaking the runaway immune reactions.

The funding round was led by BVP Partners and included RA Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management and Soleus Capital. It’s the latest example of intense investor interest this year in the immunology and inflammation space.

Read more from STAT’s Jonathan Wosen.

BIO is undergoing a major shake-up

STAT broke the news yesterday that the biotech industry’s largest lobbying group will lay off employees, including senior leaders, as part of a major restructuring.

The organization is dismissing a total of thirty employees. “In our efforts to do everything, we missed the opportunity to do many of the big things,” BIO CEO John Crowley said in an email to staff obtained by STAT.

It’s the latest change to rock the organization in recent years and comes just ahead of BIO’s annual convention next month.

Read more from STAT’s John Wilkerson and Rachel Cohrs Zhang.

The House wants to grill the three major PBMs

Rachel brings us another exclusive report: Executives from the three major pharmacy benefit managers – Optum, CVS Caremark and Express Scripts – have been called to testify before a House of Representatives panel next month.

The committee hosting this hearing is the House Oversight Committee, which does not have primary jurisdiction over health care issues but has taken a particular interest in PBM practices during this congressional session.

Read more from Rachel.

Lilly doubles its bet on radiopharma

Aktis Oncology said today that it has entered into an agreement with Eli Lilly to discover new radiopharmaceuticals.

Under the deal, Aktis will receive an upfront payment of $60 million and an equity investment from Lilly. The biotech is also eligible to receive up to $1.1 billion in potential milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties. In return, Lilly will receive rights to develop the products discovered by Aktis based on a set of goals chosen by Lilly.

This comes after Lilly acquired radiopharmaceutical company Point Biopharma for $1.4 billion last year.

Radiopharmaceuticals have received more attention after Novartis received approval for prostate cancer drug Pluvicto in 2022.

Sanofi collaborates with AI partners for drug discovery

Sanofi, which has touted its AI ambitions to boost its drug discovery, today added some fuel to that campaign: to announce a new collaboration with OpenAI and Formation Bio. The idea is that the combined expertise of the three companies will lead to AI models that can accelerate drug development and get medicines to patients faster.

“This unique collaboration is the next important step in our journey to become a pharmaceutical company substantially powered by AI,” said Paul Hudson, CEO of Sanofi, which – to the skepticism of some investors – is in a period of increased R&D investments.

As part of the new pact, Formation Bio, an AI drugmaker with its own pipeline, will provide technical resources and its development platform, while OpenAI will provide its AI insights. Maybe Scarlett Johansson has some thoughts on that.

AI in drug discovery is still far from living up to the hype

Although pharmaceutical companies (as seen above) are trying to integrate AI into their drug development work, the technology still has a long way to go before it can unlock new therapies and cures, according to a group of experts.

“I’m very concerned about the hype,” Daphne Koller, CEO of machine learning drug research company Insitro, said at STAT’s Breakthrough West Summit last week.

Drug developers using AI still need more data, better data, and advances in other types of technologies that can increase AI’s usefulness.

Read more from STAT’s Casey Ross and Matt Herper about what Koller, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and a scientist had to say about this hype.

Read more

• How doctors pressure sickle cell patients into unwanted sterilizations, STAT
• Black Americans’ risk for breast cancer becomes clearer in the analysis of 40,000 genomes, STAT
• A new spinal cord stimulator treats paralysis without surgery. The FDA will rule on it soon, STAT