Weekly Tech+Bio Highlights #71: More China Deals
DeepMind's new deep learning model lands in Nature, Big Pharma's $18B+ plans for China, FDA clears first epigenetic reprogramming trial
Last week of January saw some more deals between Western pharma and China, with the more notable being AstraZeneca’s $15B China plan for small molecules/radiopharma, and a $18.5B deal with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group to develop long-acting obesity/diabetes drugs, not long after their summer $5.3B AI drug discovery deal.
On the tech side, DeepMind’s AlphaGenome, an AI model built to read long stretches of DNA and predict how even single-letter changes may affect gene regulation, moved into the peer-reviewed record with a Nature publication.
Also, a joint report involving 14 pharma companies offered a snapshot of where generative AI is already being used in R&D, highlighting what governance and validation questions are still unresolved. Market-wise, there were early signs of thawing sentiment in the UK, with some biotechs reportedly reopening the IPO conversation and pointing to Nasdaq as a 2026 target.
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🤖 AI x Bio
(AI applications in drug discovery, biotech, and healthcare)
🔹 DeepMind’s AlphaGenome now peer-reviewed in Nature — first unveiled in June 2025, AlphaGenome is now published, reporting its ability to predict regulatory effects of non-coding variants across long DNA regions, aiding rare disease research and synthetic DNA design.
🔬 Japanese Chugai discontinued its only AI-optimized antibody after Phase 1, but reaffirmed confidence in its in-house Malexa platform, aiming to embed AI across discovery and operations.
🔹 Digital health tech moves from pilot to core — In a new ICON article on our main website, Caprice Sassano and Keith Thomas explore how digital health technologies—like wearables and sensors—are reshaping clinical trials, offering faster timelines, richer real-world data, and growing regulatory acceptance of digital endpoints.
🔹 Pharma roundtable assesses GenAI in R&D — A joint report in Science Direct from 14 pharmaceutical companies outlines current uses of generative AI in research and development, including document drafting and statistical programming, and examines future directions, governance, and validation needs.
🔹 AI boosts cancer detection while reducing workload — In a Swedish trial of ~100,000 women, combining AI with one radiologist improved breast cancer screening by detecting ~29% more cancers and reducing reading workload by ~44%, with similar false-positive rates and fewer aggressive interval cancers after 2 years.
🔹 AI modeling targets early kidney disease — BioMed X and the Barbados government launched a project to model early diabetic kidney disease using deep molecular profiling and AI, aiming to build a population-specific digital African twin to improve biomarker discovery and personalized care.
🔹 Unlearn debuts AI workspace for clinical trial planning — releasing a new AI tool to streamline early trial design by linking precedent data, benchmarks, and simulations in a single workflow to support faster, evidence-based decision-making.
🔹 Simplified AI pipeline wins protein binder design challenge — a 180-line method using Boltz-2 loss and unified folding/ranking reportedly outperformed traditional multi-stage workflows in the Adaptyv Nipah binder competition, suggesting simpler.
🔹 AI-ready proteomics targets Parkinson’s protein — Nautilus, Weill Cornell–Qatar, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation launched a $1.6M program to develop a single-molecule assay for alpha-synuclein proteoforms to improve early diagnosis and treatment of PD.
🔹 Oath Surgical partners with Nvidia to power AI-driven surgery centers — Oath Surgical will use Nvidia’s AI infrastructure to enhance its outpatient surgery platform, enabling real-time analysis of surgical data and automating documentation across its growing network of ambulatory centers.
🔹 AI accelerates CRISPR control — Researchers from Monash and Melbourne used AI to design synthetic anti-CRISPR proteins that rapidly and precisely inhibit Cas13a activity.
🔹 NVIDIA and Innophore launched CavitOmiX, an AI platform predicting drug interactions and repurposing opportunities at scale.
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💰 Money Flows
(Funding rounds, IPOs, and M&A for startups and smaller companies)
🔹 Biopharma M&A shifts toward platforms and vertical integration — Bain’s 2026 report highlights four trends reshaping pharma dealmaking: focus on owning the value chain, next-gen obesity drugs, ADC-driven oncology deals, and strategic alliances with China’s maturing pharma pipeline.
🔹 AstraZeneca signs $18.5B obesity drug deal with China’s CSPC — One day after pledging $15B in China by 2030, AstraZeneca agreed to pay CSPC $1.2B upfront and up to $17.3B in milestones for ex-China rights to eight obesity drug programs, following a separate $5.3B AI-driven drug discovery deal in 2025.
🔹 Eli Lilly has teamed up with Seamless Therapeutics to develop gene therapies using recombinase enzymes, aiming for precise gene insertion without CRISPR, marking a major step in post-CRISPR editing strategies.
🔹 Insilico signs $120M cardiometabolic drug deal with Qilu Pharma — Insilico will apply its Pharma.AI platform to design small molecules, while Qilu leads development and commercialization; also, Insilico nominated AI-designed GIPR antagonist for obesity as a preclinical candidate.
🔹 AI-native Formation Bio licenses drug from China — Formation Bio acquired ex-Greater China rights to a miR-124-targeting small molecule from Jiangsu Chia Tai Feng Hai, aiming to rival Abivax in inflammation, with a Phase 1 trial planned for 2026 and up to $500M in milestones.
🔹 UK-based Automata raised $45M in Series C and formed a strategic partnership with Danaher to scale its AI-native lab automation platform
🔹 Flagship Pioneering’s Repertoire Immune Medicines signed a partnership with Eli Lilly worth up to $1.9B to develop targeted autoimmune therapies using its immune mapping platform, joining earlier deals with BMS, Genentech, and Pfizer.
🚜 Market Movers
(News from established pharma and tech giants)
🔹 Sanofi drops mRNA seasonal flu vaccine program citing strategic refocus, though it remains committed to mRNA for pandemic strains and continues to grow its vaccine business with recent acquisitions.
🔹 Merck ends $30B acquisition talks with Revolution Medicines after failing to agree on price, though future talks or competing bids remain possible as key trial data is expected this year.
⚙️ Other Tech
(Innovations across quantum computing, BCIs, gene editing, and more)
🔹 FDA greenlights first human trial of epigenetic reprogramming — Life Biosciences, co-founded by David Sinclair, received FDA approval to test a gene therapy aiming to partially reset the epigenome in patients with vision loss, marking a major milestone for the longevity field.
🔹 Organoid models in rare disease research — iXCells and Rosebud Biosciences partnered to integrate AI-driven organoid platforms with iPSC technology.
🔹 Synthetic phages engineered to fight superbugs — NEB and Yale developed a fully synthetic system to create bacteriophages targeting drug-resistant P. aeruginosa, streamlining customization and accelerating therapeutic development using Golden Gate Assembly.
🔹 Organoids reveal shared autism pathways — Using brain organoids from 70 patient-derived stem cell lines, UCLA and Stanford researchers showed that diverse autism-linked mutations converge on common molecular pathways during early brain development, highlighting potential targets for future therapies.
🔹 Chinese startup launches noninvasive brain-computer interface using ultrasound — Gestala aims to treat conditions like chronic pain and depression by stimulating the brain with focused ultrasound, eventually developing wearable devices to both read and modulate brain activity without implants.
🔹 Soft 3D transistors mimic neural tissue for bioelectronics — Researchers at the University of Hong Kong developed the first soft, 3D hydrogel-based transistors capable of hosting living cells, offering a breakthrough in integrating electronics with biological systems for future medical and neurotechnology applications.
🔹 Neuralink expands BCI trials to 21 participants — Neuralink’s brain-computer interface, Telepathy, is now being tested by 21 people with paralysis, enabling thought-based control of cursors, robotic arms, and typing up to 40 WPM, as the company prepares hardware upgrades and broader clinical rollout.
🏛️ Bioeconomy & Society
(News on centers, regulatory updates, and broader biotech ecosystem developments)
🔹 British biotechs are showing renewed interest in public listings, with some eyeing Nasdaq in 2026 after a years-long IPO freeze, driven by strong M&A, rising investor optimism, and supportive policy shifts.
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