Major pharmaceutical companies including Roche, GSK, and Novartis are at the centre of a flurry of deal-making and drug pricing agreements reshaping the industry landscape.
GSK moved first among the late movers in the consolidation wave, agreeing to acquire efimosfermin from Boston Pharmaceuticals for $1.2 billion upfront and up to $800 million in additional milestones.
Roche followed later in the year, agreeing to acquire 89bio for up to $3.5 billion, capturing pegozafermin, an engineered FGF21 analogue now progressing through phase 3 clinical trials.
Pegozafermin has attracted significant attention across the pharmaceutical sector as a potential treatment candidate in metabolic disease, making the acquisition strategically significant for Roche.
On the pricing front, a broad coalition of major drugmakers has agreed with the White House to reduce prices on certain prescription medicines in exchange for relief from pharmaceutical import tariffs.
Companies including Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck and Co., Novartis, Roche’s Genentech, and Sanofi all entered into agreements as part of that arrangement.
The U.S. government has since returned for a second round of deals, lining up agreements with medium-sized biopharma companies under President Trump’s “most favored nation” pricing agenda.
In the first round of agreements, Regeneron was the last to sign on, joining Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis, and Johnson and Johnson in making pricing commitments alongside domestic investment pledges.
Those first-round commitments were designed to secure temporary immunity from the Trump administration’s drug import tariffs, which have placed significant pressure on pharmaceutical supply chains and pricing strategies.
Meanwhile, China-based Akeso and its U.S. partner Summit Therapeutics continue to advance their PD-1xVEGF bispecific antibody ivonescimab, which delivered another notable clinical milestone at the ESMO conference.
Data presented at ESMO showed that ivonescimab can delay tumour progression versus a PD-1 inhibitor when used as part of a combination with chemotherapy, based on a study conducted in China.
The result adds further momentum to ivonescimab’s growing clinical profile, reinforcing its position as a closely watched asset in the competitive oncology biologics market.