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On this week’s episode, Sam Fazeli, Brian Skorney, Yaron Werber, and Strand Therapeutics CEO Jake Becraft open with the wave of dealmaking and a solid Q2 earnings season, then turn to the reports of the potential AstraZeneca/Bristol Myers merger, which the group called “more smoke than fire.” Next, as the trend of reverse mergers continues, the co-hosts note they’re increasingly well-received as a faster path to going public. Meanwhile, the IPO window has remained open and strong. The conversation moved to the ongoing China biotech debate, discussing the challenges and opportunities facing US biotech. In regulatory news, the FDA granted breakthrough therapy and orphan drug designations for Mirum’s volixibat, while Replimune received approval for Tudriqev (RP1) in melanoma after its third submission. The group also compared Moderna and BioNTech heading into a data-heavy second, noting BioNTech’s CEO change, and covered Ascendis’s strong launch against BioMarin in achondroplasia, now complicated by ITC patent litigation. The episode closed on a high note with Otsuka’s atrasentan, showing unprecedented two-year eGFR stabilization in IgA nephropathy. *This episode aired on August 7, 2026.
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