For some advanced cancers, sequencing the tumor genome should be one of the first steps patients and physicians take. But a new study finds that many patients never receive genomic testing and so never get the chance to know if they might have benefitted from newer, more targeted therapies.

The study, published on Tuesday in JAMA Network Open, examined how many patients diagnosed with one of five different metastatic cancers received genetic sequencing for the cancers. For most cancers in the study, roughly half of patients in the cohort received genetic sequencing. Patients with low income, Medicare or Medicaid coverage, and Black or Hispanic race or ethnicity were also less likely to receive sequencing.

Cancer medicine and research have made enormous progress over the last few decades. The overall five-year survival rate has pushed up to 70% as of 2026, and the five-year survival rate for metastatic cancer has doubled since the 1960s. That’s in large part thanks to advances in medicines and technologies that can help treat cancer, like targeted therapies that work by exploiting key cancer mutations.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

In a move that will grow its oncology pipeline, Gilead Sciences is spending more than $3 billion to buy the German biotech Tubulis, the companies said Tuesday.

The deal includes an upfront payment of $3.15 billion and up to $1.85 billion more if certain milestones are reached. It also highlights both the therapeutic and commercial promise of antibody-drug conjugates, the next-generation chemotherapy treatments that the privately held Tubulis is developing.

Gilead’s latest move comes just months after it said it would acquire Arcellx in a deal worth $7.8 billion. The two companies had already been working together on a multiple myeloma CAR-T therapy that could be approved later this year. Gilead last month also announced that it was buying Ouro Therapeutics, which is focused on drugs for autoimmune disease, for up to $2.18 billion.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration used the president’s budget to propose policies aimed at encouraging domestic development and manufacturing of drugs.  

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has said the agency needs “giant, big ideas” to counter China’s dominance in early-stage clinical development of drugs. Among the FDA’s ideas are proposals to make it easier to run early-stage trials in the U.S. and to hand an advantage to U.S.-based generics manufacturers.

The Trump administration has been using a variety of policy levers to try and bring drug manufacturing to the U.S. For example, many of the brand drugmakers that struck deals to lower U.S. prices also promised to increase domestic manufacturing, under the threat of tariffs.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

Want to stay on top of the science and politics driving biotech today? Sign up to get our biotech newsletter in your inbox.

A four-month FDA delay prompted a cash-strapped biotech company to shutter. The White House’s proposed NIH cuts are drawing bipartisan backlash. Peptide hype is outpacing evidence. And more!

The need-to-know this morning

• Neurocrine Biosciences said this morning that it would buy Soleno Therapeutics and its treatment for Prader-Willi syndrome for $2.9 billion. Neurocrine is paying $53 a share for Soleno, a 34% premium to its closing price on Thursday.
  

A four-month FDA delay derailed a small biotech. Is it a sign of the times?

FDA delays can happen. For large drugmakers, they can be frustrating; for small drugmakers, they can be existential.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…