Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Tivara raised $3.6 million, backed by Mischief VC, Day One Ventures, and Y Combinator. The startup introduces AI agents to healthcare administration, taking over phone calls and scheduling. Tivara shared its pitch deck with Business Insider — take a look. Tej Seelamsetty dislocated his shoulder in 2024. The 29-year-old told Business Insider that he waited over an hour on the phone to book an appointment with an orthopedist, and then two weeks for insurance to approve his MRI scheduling. Frustrated with the pace of the healthcare system, Seelamsetty cofounded the AI agents startup Tivara with Aumesh Misra. The company promises…
Jan 8 (Reuters) – AnaptysBio said on Thursday it filed a partial motion to dismiss a claim by GSK’s oncology unit, which alleges the biotech breached their contract, escalating a legal dispute over royalties tied to sales of the cancer drug Jemperli. The dispute centers on a 2014 agreement between AnaptysBio and oncology unit Tesaro that gave the latter rights to develop and sell Jemperli, a PD-1 inhibitor approved for certain endometrial cancers. GSK did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment outside business hours. A trial to resolve claims is scheduled for July 14–17, 2026, and the…
By Patrick Wingrove Jan 12 (Reuters) – Moderna said on Monday it expects to report around $1.9 billion in sales for 2025, putting it near the upper end of its previously projected $1.6 billion to $2 billion forecast but well below revenue levels achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderna Chief Financial Officer James Mock said in an interview that U.S. vaccination rates in the retail sector fell by roughly 26% year-over-year in 2025. That decline, at the lower end of the company’s projected 20% to 40% drop, ultimately led to higher sales, he said. The vaccine maker, which is set…
Jan 12 (Reuters) – Novartis will continue to do bolt-on deals and its capital allocation priorities remain unchanged, CEO Vasant Narasimhan said at a major industry conference that kicked off on Monday in San Francisco. “We are always looking for opportunities that fit our core therapeutic areas,” Narasimhan said at the J.P. Morgan healthcare conference. “We want to do deals that make sense, and we have the capital to be able to do that.” The company is focusing on strategic therapeutic areas such as oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and cardiovascular and renal medicine. Novartis has been proactively striking deals to address…
Jan 12 (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar said on Monday as many as 1.5 million patients in the U.S. may be using compounded versions of blockbuster GLP-1 drugs, underscoring how cheaper, unapproved alternatives have captured a significant share of demand for obesity treatments. Speaking on a panel at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Doustdar said compounders understood consumer needs better than the pharmaceutical industry initially did, allowing them to attract patients who were unable or unwilling to pay for branded medicines. Novo, the maker of the obesity drug Wegovy, has repeatedly warned about the risks of compounded and…
By Puyaan Singh Jan 12 (Reuters) – Weight-loss drug developer Viking Therapeutics CEO said on Monday that strategic interest in weight-loss drug deals is broader than it appears, as drugmakers seek to tap into the potential $150 billion market. Pharmaceutical companies are targeting the booming weight-loss drug market, which analysts estimate could exceed $150 billion annually by the end of the decade. Key growth drivers include expanded clinical applications, wider patient adoption, improved drug manufacturing capacity, and a pipeline of next‑generation therapies. “I think the interest is probably broader than is visible … more parties sort of circling around the…
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Amgen’s research chief said the company is very confident about its experimental obesity drug MariTide, as it prepares on Monday to unveil results from a mid-stage trial extension designed to show if the medication helps people maintain weight loss. The company will announce the latest findings – as well as results from a Phase 2 trial of the once-monthly injection in diabetes patients – at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. “Other people are clamoring to develop once-monthly or less frequent dose medicines, and we are unambiguously in the lead there,” Jay…
By Michael Erman SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Pfizer is preparing for a consumer market for obesity drugs on par with the booming business it saw after it launched erectile dysfunction drug Viagra in 1998, CEO Albert Bourla said on Monday. Bourla said that even when the drugmaker was negotiating its purchase of weight-loss drugmaker Metsera, initially announced in September 2025, Pfizer did not expect the cash-pay market for obesity drugs currently dominated by Eli Lilly and Co and Novo Nordisk to get so big, so fast. “Both Lilly and Novo presented their sales and had significant sales outside…
Jan 13 (Reuters) – Global drugmakers are ramping up U.S. manufacturing and stockpiling inventory as the Trump administration considers imposing a 100% tariff on imported branded and patented medicines. Although enforcement is delayed for companies investing in U.S. manufacturing, the policy has already prompted fast-tracked projects, price cuts and direct-to-consumer sales. Pfizer and AstraZeneca secured multi-year tariff exemptions through pricing deals and commitments to the new TrumpRx.gov platform. Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Merck have pledged billions to expand U.S. operations to avoid penalties. Here’s what drugmakers are doing to mitigate supply-chain risks and reassure investors: Pfizer Pfizer reached…
By Sneha S K and Gnaneshwar Rajan Jan 13 (Reuters) – Thermo Fisher Scientific’s pharmaceutical services business has won a number of contracts to help its customers move production from Europe or Asia to the U.S., the medical equipment maker’s CEO, Marc Casper, said on Tuesday. “There’s a very big focus on reshoring more production and activity to the U.S.,” Casper said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, adding that the trend is going to be a tailwind in 2027 and 2028. U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed pharma companies to onshore domestic manufacturing to the U.S. Although enforcement of…