Deals being struck at JPM conference.15 Jan 2026 11:13
After a busy first day featuring headlines from a who's who of leading biopharma companies, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is rolling on Tuesday with many more conference-related events on the docket, including the start of Fierce JPM Week.
And while Monday didn't produce any major deals like we've seen in years past at JPM, that's not stopping industry leaders from crisscrossing San Francisco to keep up with their busy meeting schedules. Our reporters and editors are on the ground and will be sharing all the latest as the week goes on.
Be sure to check back here regularly for JPM Day 2 updates. For a Day 1 recap, check our tracker from yesterday. And for the pharma side of the industry, check out Fierce Pharma's Day 1 tracker here.
Tuesday, 2:50 p.m. ET
Novartis is paying Zonsen PepLib Biotech $50 million cash for licensing rights to a peptide-based radioligand therapy. The exclusive worldwide rights put Novartis on the hook for development and commercialization of the asset. China biotech PepLib will also have the chance to collect an undisclosed sum in biobucks. Release
Tuesday, 1:40 p.m. ET
The number of new molecules or in-market drugs with late-stage label expansion programs has grown to 37 at AstraZeneca in 2025, compared with 27 in 2021, according to a presentation by CFO Aradhana Sarin at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday. At the same time, the non-risk-adjusted value per indication has also increased to about $1.3 billion in 2025 from about $700 million.
Some of the key phase 3 programs that Sarin highlighted include oral PCSK9 med laroprovstat, which expects pivotal data in 2027, and the first late-stage readout from the company’s first fully owned antibody-drug conjugate, CLDN18.2-targeted sonesitatug vedotin, is expected in the first half of this year. All told, the British pharma now has eight wholly owned ADCs in the clinic.
Phase 3 multiple myeloma trials are also being planned this year for AZD0120, the dual CD19xBCMA CAR-T that AZ got from its acquisition of Gracell Biotechnologies. And CD19xCD3 bispecific surovatamig was recently pushed into phase 3 in follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
As to the firm’s emerging obesity portfolio, Sarin said AZ’s goal is “to address weight management and cardiometabolic risks holistically.” With phase 2 data on multiple assets expected this year, AZ plans to move to “broad phase 3 trials in 2026,” Sarin said.
AZ expects its 2026 R&D costs to land toward the upper end of the low-20s percentage range of total revenue.
“This level of spend will allow us to invest in emerging opportunities, while at the same time, deliver 104 phase 3 studies that we have ongoing,” Sarin said.
“Throughout the next decade, our diversified portfolio and global reach provide resilience in an ever-changing external environment, and our disciplined capital allocation ensures that we can fund innovation and generat
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