April 8, 2026

The need-to-know this morning

French VC firm Jeito Capital has raised a new $1.2 billion fund. The money is to go entirely to biotech and pharmaceutical ventures.
Novavax shareholder Shah Capital stated it will vote against a proposed executive compensation package, citing the company's "chronic operational shortcomings." Shah owns 9% of the company's stock.

rare disease

A controversial class of drugs for Duchenne patients is making a return

About a decade ago, medications known as exon-skipping drugs proved to be remarkably divisive among reviewers at the Food and Drug Administration. Developed to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the therapies, including some approved products from Sarepta Therapeutics, appeared to barely work.

The problem was that the drugs couldn't effectively penetrate patients' muscles. But scientists went back to the lab to work on a new wave of treatments that may get into tissues more easily. One from Avidity Biosciences, acquired by Novartis for $12 billion last year, has shown early results that have stunned experts.

Companies making these new drugs, though, have many hurdles to overcome before reaching the market, including figuring out how to navigate an FDA upended under the Trump administration.

Read more in a special report from STAT's Jason Mast.

oncology

Terns' drug may not be as competitive as many initially thought

Merck last month said it would buy Terns Pharmaceuticals for $6.7 billion (or $53 a share), a price many investors thought was too low, given promising data on Terns' leukemia drug. Now we have more details on how Merck reached that price.

Terns had been widely seen as a takeout target last year after it reported early results from a trial called Cardinal, showing that its drug maintained and even boosted molecular response rates in advanced-stage leukemia patients. The candidate has been seen as a potential successor to Scemblix, a commercial blockbuster from Novartis.

According to an SEC filing yesterday, one unnamed company had offered to buy Terns at $61 per share plus an additional $9 per share if certain milestones were met. Merck had initially offered to buy the biotech at $61 per share as well.

But after Terns shared updated data from the Cardinal trial with both companies, the unnamed company withdrew its offer because it no longer viewed Terns' drug “as sufficiently differentiated or sufficiently de-risked to proceed.”

Merck, meanwhile, submitted a new offer of $50 per share and said it believed the molecule response rate for the drug “would likely be at the low end of the range discussed by Terns management,” the filing said. Merck still believed the data were compelling relative to Novartis' drug “and therefore had continued enthusiasm to proceed with a transaction.”

After negotiations, Merck then raised its offer to $53 per share.

M&A

Gilead keeps the M&A streak going

Gilead said yesterday it would buy cancer biotech Tubulis for up to $5 billion, framing the deal as one that would complement its existing oncology work.

Tubulis’ lead molecule, an antibody-drug conjugate, is in a Phase 1/2 trial for ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.

It's been a busy few months of M&A for the biotech industry and for Gilead specifically. Last month, it said it would acquire Arcellx, a CAR-T-focused biotech, in a deal worth $7.8 billion. It also also last month said it would buy immunology company Ouro Therapeutics for up to $2.18 billion.

Thanks for reading! Until next time,

elaine.chen@statnews.com

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