“It would be an area of interest to us,” Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato said of the obesity space during the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference.

Restructuring Edition: Vir will end influenza, COVID-19 and T-cell-based viral vector platform programs to focus on clinical hepatitis and cancer assets. Also, FibroGen cut 75% of its workforce after a clinical trial failure, while Arbutus, HilleVax, Pfizer and others also announced layoffs.

Flush with cash, the controlling stakeholder of Novo Nordisk’s life sciences investment arm is increasing its financing of other biopharma innovators.

Following a pair of $10bn+ deals in Q4 2023 and a $16.5bn takeout in Q1, the second quarter saw no acquisition priced as high as $5bn, Evaluate notes. Aggregate deal volume and values dropped from Q1.