Upfront Briefing
Novartis widened Pluvicto’s label on Friday, and by Monday afternoon Curium had agreed to buy the company that sells the scan telling you who qualifies. Up to $8B for Lantheus, $102.50 in cash plus a CVR stub, and a stock that moved 2.45% on the news because Bloomberg spoiled the ending back in May. Pathos AI, meanwhile, would like everything: a TROP2/HER3 bispecific licensed out of China for $125M upfront, an oral ER degrader off AstraZeneca’s bench, and up to $300M being marketed at a roughly $3B valuation — all announced the same evening. Jazz then turned in $1.21B and raised the year, which is what happens when February guidance is set too politely.
Tape Action
| Instrument |
Last close |
1D % |
YTD % |
| S&P 500 |
7,600.5 |
1.5% |
11.0% |
| Nasdaq 100 |
28,776.8 |
1.8% |
14.2% |
| Russell 2000 |
2,981.9 |
1.7% |
20.2% |
| Healthcare (XLV) |
162.2 |
(0.2%) |
4.3% |
| Biotech (XBI) |
147.3 |
0.2% |
21.2% |
| Nasdaq Biotech (NBI) |
6,431.2 |
(0.3%) |
12.7% |
| Clinical Trials (BBC) |
49.0 |
0.5% |
30.2% |
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- Two of the year’s largest healthcare M&A headlines landed on the same session and the sector still finished red: Curium agreed to take Lantheus private for up to $8B and the FT put AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers in merger talks, yet XLV closed (0.2%) and NBI (0.3%) against an S&P 500 up 1.5%. LNTH added 2.45% and BMY ran ~4% at the open; the bid was rotational into megacap tech, not into drug developers.
- Crude fell roughly 5% Monday after President Trump called off planned strikes on Iran, pulling the 10-year to 4.684% and lifting the megacaps — Amazon cleared a $3T market cap, Microsoft added 4.9% and Meta 6%, carrying the Dow to a record 53,178.41. July ISM manufacturing hit a four-year high with employment at 52.8, its best since August 2022.
- Market data: U.S. cash close Monday, 3 August 2026.
The Big 3
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1
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Curium takes Lantheus private in up to $8B radiopharma deal
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- Curium, the CapVest-backed radiopharma group, will acquire all outstanding Lantheus (NASDAQ: LNTH) shares for $102.50 in cash plus non-transferable CVRs worth up to $12.00, taking total consideration to $114.50 per share and up to $8.0B. CVR milestones run on prostate cancer diagnostics, neurology diagnostics and Definity through 2030. Board-approved unanimously, financed with debt and equity, no financing condition, targeted to close in H1 2027.
- Why it matters: The cash leg is a 21% premium to the unaffected 21 May close and 38% to the 60-day VWAP, but LNTH added only 2.45% Monday — the Bloomberg leak in May did the repricing, and the tape is marking the CVR stub close to zero against an H1 2027 close. Strategic logic sits one notch upstream of therapy: Pylarify is the PSMA scan that gates Pluvicto eligibility, and Novartis widened Pluvicto into mHSPC on Friday, roughly doubling the eligible pool. Curium is buying the toll booth rather than another radioligand. Two risks worth pricing — antitrust review of combined isotope supply, and a target that suspended 2026 guidance and pulled its 6 August call.
- Source: Fierce Biotech
- More: Reuters; BioSpace
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2
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Pathos licenses from Alphamab and AZ, markets $300M round
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- Pathos licensed Alphamab’s JSKN016, a first-in-class TROP2/HER3 bispecific ADC, for $125M upfront plus up to $2.093B in milestones and high-single to low-double-digit royalties, taking rights outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. A separate co-exclusive deal with AstraZeneca hands it AZD4241, an oral ERα PROTAC in ER+/HER2- breast cancer. The company is marketing up to $300M at a ~$3B valuation.
- Why it matters: A $125M upfront is a real check from a private company still raising, which is why both announcements landed the same evening — the deals are the pitch. JSKN016 enters the TROP2 fight against Merck/Kelun’s sac-TMT and Dato-DXd on a bispecific angle rather than a payload one, and AZD4241 buys a shot at the oral degrader field where Menarini’s Orserdu and AZ’s own camizestrant already sit. AstraZeneca licensing an asset to a company it co-funds through the Tempus foundation model is the tell: this is outsourced early development. Risk sits in COINS Act exposure on a China-sourced ADC, and in a $3B mark that only holds if the round closes near target.
- Source: Endpoints
- More: BioSpace; RTTNews
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| 3 | Jazz posts record Q2 revenue, raises 2026 guidance |
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Xywav helped drive record Q2 revenue to $1.2B, up 16% year over year, as Jazz also raised 2026 guidance.
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Why it matters: The number that moves the model is the guide, not the quarter: 2026 revenue goes to $4.60–4.75B from $4.25–4.50B, a raise of roughly $350M at the midpoint two quarters in. Xywav did $471M on ~525 net adds with limited high-sodium generic erosion, which is the franchise question answered for another quarter, and rare sleep guidance moves to $2.025–2.125B. Oncology grew 32% off a small base. The offset is the bottom line — adjusted EPS of $5.71 landed short of consensus on IPR&D charges, so the print is a top-line beat with a messier earnings line. Next gate is the zanidatamab 1L GEA PDUFA on 25 August.
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Source:
PR
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More:
PR
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Everything Else that broke
- Nurix dosed the first patient in Phase 3 DAYBreak CLL-306 for bexobrutideg against pirtobrutinib. — PR
- AstraZeneca-Bristol Myers merger chatter drew Wall Street and industry skepticism. — Endpoints
- Lilly broadened special-access applications for unapproved obesity drug retatrutide. — STAT
- Danaher named Julie Sawyer Montgomery CEO as Rainer Blair prepares to retire. — PR
- Innogen won PIC/S GMP certification for its Suzhou facility supporting efsubaglutide alfa. — PR
- Sanofi’s MenQuadfi won EU approval in infants from six weeks on the MET58 study, catching Europe up to a US label the FDA granted in May 2025. — PR
- BioNTech named Sobi chief executive Guido Oelkers as CEO, filling a vacancy open five months. — Fierce Biotech
- FDA cleared Novartis’ Pluvicto with an ARPI in PSMA-positive mHSPC on PSMAddition, which cut progression or death by 28% (HR 0.72), widening to 33% on updated analysis. — Novartis
Deal Flow
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BioBucks 2026 Deal Trackers • Updated weekly ⬇️
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M&A / BD&L
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Curium agreed to acquire Lantheus for $102.50 per share in cash plus up to $12.00 in CVRs, valuing the deal at up to $8.0B (see The Big 3). — BioSpace
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Pathos licensed Alphamab’s JSKN016 for $125M upfront and up to $2.093B in milestones, and took co-exclusive rights to AstraZeneca’s AZD4241 (see The Big 3). — Endpoints
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BWXT agreed to sell its medical business to Nordic Capital for up to $800M while retaining a minority stake. — PR
VC / Private Financings
- No newly closed private financings in the last 24 hours; Pathos is marketing up to a $300M Series E at a ~$3B valuation (see The Big 3).
IPOs / Follow-Ons
- BlossomHill Therapeutics set terms to raise $111.7M, funding a potential challenger to AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso. — Fierce Biotech
Academic Corner - Directed evolution of botulinum neurotoxin serotype X proteases induced targeted, multipathway lytic cell death in cancer cells. — Nature Biotech
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