🇨🇳 A new trend is shaking up how biotechs are built, Kyle LaHucik observes in this feature story. Instead of launching with eye-popping early-stage science or a new platform, there’s a surge of startups with small teams, large checks and one or two clinical-stage assets in-licensed from China. The so-called NewCo model has been around for years, but its use with assets connected to China appears to be increasing. Endpoints News identified at least 18 private biotechs that have followed this route since the beginning of 2025.

Previously, most biotechs started with a piece of fundamental science, then worked for years to build a drug around it that could eventually be tested. But with the explosion of trial-ready assets from China, many are skipping those early steps. Some companies are focusing on a single drug, hoping to expand into multiple indications with the same asset. Others have sourced a clinical-stage asset or two from China to kickstart their pipelines and build a foundation for additional discovery work.

💰 Candid’s effort to prove T cell engagers’ potential in autoimmune diseases is getting picked up by one of Europe’s oldest pharma companies, Kyle LaHucik writes. UCB is paying $2 billion in cash to acquire Candid, with up to $200 million in milestones on the line. Candid had been planning to go public this summer via a reverse merger with Rallybio. But unsolicited interest from multiple companies “led toward a broader evaluation,” CEO Ken Song said.

“I was a bit surprised,” Song told Endpoints. But he noted that there has been “an increasing appreciation broadly across the industry on the benefit of T cell engagers for B cell depletion in a variety of autoimmune diseases.” Song has been committed to testing the modality for autoimmune diseases, previously claiming that Candid would “prove or disprove” the approach “for the entire industry.” 

The deal marks UCB’s second biotech acquisition in as many months, in what has so far been a busy year for M&A. Drugmakers have signed at least 30 acquisitions so far this year, according to an Endpoints tally. 

💩 Scientists trying to understand why cancer immunotherapy works startlingly well for some patients — and not others — have found a potential answer in one cancer survivor’s poop. Kanvas Biosciences studied a woman’s stool and identified roughly 50 strains of bacteria that, collectively, created just the right conditions for immunotherapy to cure her advanced colorectal cancer. Researchers also say they’ve figured out how to grow that microbial community in the lab and package them in pills, senior science correspondent Ryan Cross reports.
 

🤝 GSK inked a $1 billion biobucks deal with Suzhou-based SiranBio, expanding its reach in the cardiometabolic space. GSK will pay $55 million upfront for the rights to SA030 — an siRNA in Phase 1 for obesity — outside of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
 

SiranBio has been building up the drug candidate as a next-generation obesity treatment, with the potential to “achieve selective fat reduction without compromising muscle mass.” It goes after activin receptor-like kinase 7, or ALK7, which is the same target as one of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals’ obesity drugs.

But GSK sees potential beyond obesity. A GSK spokesperson told Endpoints News that the company doesn’t plan to develop the program “for the sole purpose of weight loss.” Rather, GSK said it will test the candidate in cardiometabolic disease patients with “chronic conditions that affect the lung, liver and kidney.” 

🫀 This week, Cytokinetics said its heart drug Myqorzo succeeded in a Phase 3 study, showing improvements in symptoms and exercise capacity in patients with the non-obstructive form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (nHCM). The drug already won approval for the obstructive form of the condition (oHCM) late last year.