Industry update January 2026

This update is a snap-shot of industry events which occurred during January 2026. The year started well for Eli Lilly with the purchase of Ventyx Biosciences and the signing of two separate collaboration and licensing agreements with Nimbus Therapeutics and Repertoire Immune Medicines for the development of obesity and autoimmune diseases therapies, respectively. AstraZeneca was also in the business of strengthening its obesity and metabolic disease pipeline through an 8-program agreement with CSPC Pharmaceuticals. The deal is potentially worth up to a staggering US$ 18.5 billion in upfront and milestone payments to the Chinese company if all development, regulatory, commercialization and sales goals are met. The agreement also gives AstraZeneca access to CSPC's LiquidGel once monthly dosing technology for its own in-house programs. Elsewhere, Amgen bought out Dark Blue Therapeutics, whose lead MLLT1/3 degrader, DBT 3757, has shown promise in acute leukemia preclinical models; while Roche paired up again with MediLink Therapeutics, this time to advance the antibody-drug conjugate, YL201, which is currently in Phase 3 studies in China for small cell lung cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.