Market outlook, Biosecure returns, biotech M&A — a BioCentury podcast

Indicators point toward an improving public market

Biotech’s fourth quarter began with a familiar feeling, with indicators pointing toward an improving public market even as political and regulatory uncertainty has buysiders reluctant to say industry has returned to sustainable growth. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s Stephen Hansen assesses the state of biotech’s public markets and the cases for optimism and concern.

Washington Editor Steve Usdin discusses the Senate’s move to limit access to Chinese contract manufacturing and development companies via a modified version of last year’s Biosecure Act, and gives his take on the latest developments in the White House’s “most favored nation” drug pricing negotiations with 17 biopharma companies. Also on the policy front, they discuss Britain’s NHS and its attempt to win over pharma companies by adjusting thresholds at NICE.

Finally, Hansen analyzes a pair of billion-dollar-plus M&A deals: the $4.7 billion deal by  Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NOVO B; NYSE:NVO) to acquire liver disease company  Akero Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRO), and the $1.5 billion takeout of in vivo cell therapy company Orbital Therapeutics Inc. by Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) to complement its ex vivo therapies.