Monday will feature JPM presentations from Big Pharmas, including Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Pfizer.
After a flurry of Big Pharma deals in the first week of the new year, the life sciences industry is heading to San Francisco for the industry's biggest investor event of the year. Monday, we'll be covering J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference presentations from Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and many other companies. Apart from the scheduled conference presentations, our on-the-ground reporters and editors will be sharing dispatches from their JPM interactions. Be sure to check back regularly today and during the rest of the week for the latest from JPM 2026. UPDATE: 11:25 p.m. ETWhile Amgen made headlines on Monday night at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference by revealing the success (PDF) of a phase 2 trial of its closely watched investigational GLP-1 treatment MariTide, the company also pointed to three growth drivers that currently are boosting its top line.The trio are osteoporosis drug Evenity, heart disease treatment Repatha and severe asthma therapy Tezspire. All are generating rapidly growing sales and are still “underpenetrated medicines,” CEO Robert Bradway said.Sales of Evenity, which are annualizing at $2 billion, were up 33% year over year in the third quarter of 2025. Repatha, which is annualizing at $3 billion, was also up 33% in the period, while AstraZeneca-partnered Tezspire, which is annualizing at $1 billion, was up 49%.“Tezspire is performing very well and has all the hallmarks of a medicine that will go on and make a big difference for many, many patients in a number of different important diseases where the unmet medical needs remain very high,” Bradway said of the treatment, which earned an FDA nod to two months ago to treat chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) and is being studied to treat COPD and eosinophilic esophagitis. UPDATE: 9:34 p.m. ETWith Takeda at a “pivotal moment” in its growth outlook, the company’s Monday presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference revolved around the pipeline of eight “highly innovative” programs that will help foster growth beyond the end-of-decade loss of exclusivity coming for immunology med Entyvio, CEO Christophe Weber said.The company expects multibillion-dollar sales from each of the eight new medicines, three of which are on track to launch over the next 18 months. Those late-stage assets include narcolepsy type 1 med oveporexton, polycyemia vera prospect rusfertide and once-daily oral psoriasis candidate zasocitinib. Takeda outlined high hopes for the trio, with zasocitinib positioned to “transform and expand” the advanced oral therapy market, rusfertide said to “revolutionize” treatment outcomes and oveporexton touted as a paradigm-changing option that can “rapidly capture” patient share.“That’s our agenda for the next three years,” Weber summed up. By June, Weber is scheduled to pass the CEO title to Julie Kim, who currently serves as head of the global portfolio division.UPDATE: 9:20 p.m. ETRoche expects its HER2 breast cancer franchise to peak this year at 9 billion Swiss francs ($11.3 billion) sales, CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, Teresa Graham, said Monday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. After that, the franchise will “maintain a very healthy tail through the decade,” she said.Roche has been busy converting patients who take its Herceptin and Perjeta separately to the fixed-dose combination of Phesgo.In November, the FDA approved Organon and Henlius Biotech’s Poherdy as the first biosimilar to Perjeta. When that copycat launches, which Roche has projected will happen this year, the Swiss pharma expects it will have converted 60% of patients to Phesgo, Graham said.Roche is counting on up to 19 new medicines launches by 2030. One filing for the oral SERD med giredestrant in previously treated ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer was already delivered to regulators at the end of 2025, and Roche is working on a submission in the adjuvant setting following the positive lidERA readout.The company is awaiting readout from a third phase 3 study of fenebrutinib in the first half of this year to file the BTK inhibitor in multiple sclerosis. In another pair of potential submissions this year, Roche has confirmed with the FDA that existing data support filings for vamikibart in uveitic macular edema and for satralizumab in thyroid eye disease, according to Graham.“Our on-market portfolio will deliver growth through 2028,” Graham said. “We do not see a patent cliff ahead for Roche.”UPDATE: 8:20 p.m. ETParticipating in the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is much more an opportunity for Regeneron to schmooze investors than to scout out business development opportunities.The New York drugmaker is much more focused on internal investment than other companies in its orbit. On Monday, CEO Len Schleifer explained why Regeneron historically uses roughly 95% of its resources on internal R&D, while other companies in the industry dedicate almost half of their R&D investment to external initiatives.“We do this for two reasons. First, we have the benefit of an extraordinarily productive R&D organization,” Schleifer said. “Second, our internal analysis shows that the overall return on external business development throughout the industry has been modest, with only a small percentage of deals leading to successful approvals and even fewer still to commercial success. Large M&A deals, in particular, have often resulted in value destruction.”Regeneron revealed one bit of news, reporting fourth-quarter sales of closely watched eye disease treatment Eylea. While the company’s high-dose version of the injected drug generated sales of $506 million in the period for an 18% sequential and 66% year-over-year increase, the boost didn’t provide an increase in overall revenue from the Eylea franchise. It remained at $1.1 billion indicating that the success of Eylea HD is compensating for the decline in sales of its aging forerunner. UPDATE: 7:20 p.m. ETWhen Madrigal Pharmaceuticals grows up, it wants to be just like Vertex.According to CEO Bill Sibold Monday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, that’s the model Madrigal is mimicking as it attempts to not only retain its leadership in treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), but double down on it. While its MASH treatment Rezdiffra is on its way to blockbuster status, the company is focused solely on maximizing its opportunity in the indication instead of looking to diversify. Madrigal’s first two business development deals—with Pfizer and China’s CSPC—are designed to find cardiometabolic agents that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of Rezdiffra.Before branching out, Vertex used the same strategy in building its dominance of the cystic fibrosis (CF) market after the 2012 approval of Kalydeco. The company, which generated $11 billion in revenue in 2024, initially focused its M&A strategy on capitalizing on its expertise in the indication.“Vertex is the unmitigated leader in CF,” Sibold said. “We see no reason why we can’t be the unmitigated leader in MASH. You’ve seen how that’s worked out for them. Our focus is MASH. Let’s win here.”Madrigal is winning with its launch of Rezdiffra, which generated sales of $287 million in the third quarter of 2025, which was up from $213 million in the previous period. The company sees a doubling of the market potential for Rezdiffra if it can expand the treatment to patients with stage 4 MASH. It is currently approved for those in stage 2 and 3. A trial in patients with stage 4 is expected to read out in 2027.“It’s very rare when you are at the start of something that is such a big opportunity,” Sibold said. “It’s even rarer that you have a great asset to start to tackle that with. I’ve been in the industry for over 30 years now and the setup for this is better than anything I’ve seen. What some companies have done is they squander an opportunity to extend leadership in a disease or an indication and try to diversify into something else prematurely. That’s not what we’re doing. Before the table is set by somebody else, we want to be the one who sets the table.” UPDATE: 6:32 p.m. ETCommercialization—of franchises established, new and anticipated—was the dominant theme of Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Monday presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.In practice, that means continuing to invest in the company’s bread-and-butter cystic fibrosis (CF) medications, supporting gene therapy Casgevy’s “path to become a blockbuster medicine,” aiming to more than triple the prescriptions of its non-opioid pain medicine Journavx from 2025 levels and laying the groundwork for a potentially CF-rivaling renal franchise, beginning with lead nephrology asset povetacicept in IgA nephropathy (IgAN), Vertex CEO Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., said during her company’s presentation.Kewalramani gave special attention in her prepared remarks to Journavx, which secured FDA approval roughly a year ago with the promise of ushering in a new era of nonaddictive pain treatment.Through the end of 2025, more than 30,000 prescribers wrote over half a million prescriptions for Vertex’s pain med, and now the company aims to triple that number of scripts in 2026, Kewalramani said. To get there, Vertex will bulk up its force of sales reps from about 150 currently to roughly 300 “in the coming months,” the CEO explained.Meanwhile, preparing for the potential launch of Vertex’s renal franchise, Kewalramani noted that her company initiated its submission for an accelerated approval of povetacicept in IgAN in 2025’s fourth quarter. Vertex intends to complete its filing within the first half of 2026, the CEO said.The Boston-based biopharma believes povetacicept has both best-in-class and pipeline-in-a-product potential, although the company sports a number of other renal candidates in its pipeline as well.“We’re investing in renal for the long term to improve the lives of patients with kidney diseases, to go after the underlying cause of disease [and] to bring transformative medicines,” Kewalramani said. UPDATE: 5:29 p.m. ET 2026 is the year of “strategic realization” for BioMarin, following up on 2025’s “operational implementation” and the “refreshed strategy” at the company that came in 2024 with new CEO Alexander Hardy, he said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Monday. One defining point of 2025 was the “exceptional strategic fit” of the company’s $4.8 billion purchase of Amicus Therapeutics—the largest deal in BioMarin's 28-year history. Amicus makes for a “perfect match with what BioMarin does really, really well,” Hardy said. The deal, which has yet to close, brings oral Fabry disease treatment Galafold and Pompe disease combination treatment Pombiliti-Opfolda under BioMarin’s umbrella, with each representing a potential $1 billion opportunity.The company has already mapped a route to help each franchise reach its blockbuster potential, including a focus on boosting diagnosis and treatment rates for Galafold and executing on the “tremendous opportunities” for label expansions for Pombiliti-Opfolda, Hardy noted. Meanwhile, BioMarin has now gathered the post-marketing data needed to convert the 2021 accelerated approval of its drug Voxzogo into a full one and will soon file its request with the FDA, according to the company. Voxzogo, approved in the hereditary growth condition achondroplasia, is “only at the beginning of its journey,” Hardy said. He pointed to four potential new indications indications for the therapy, including one that the company hopes to pick up in 2027 for the genetic disorder hypochondroplasia. Expected 2025 revenues for Voxzogo total some $920 million, while BioMarin’s preliminary revenue estimate for the full year sits at $3.2 billion. UPDATE: 5:05 p.m. ETSeveral years into his run as Biogen’s chief exec, Chris Viehbacher took the chance Monday to sing the praises of the “New Biogen” he’s created through a series of strategic decisions.Sales gains from Biogen’s recent launches in Friedreich’s ataxia, Alzheimer’s disease, postpartum depression and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are offsetting declines in the company’s stalwart multiple sclerosis franchise, the CEO said during his presentation, which helps to “put a floor under the company” as it prepares for key upcoming readouts.Among Biogen’s expected readouts, the drugmaker is anticipating its Topaz-1 and Topaz-2 studies of litifilimab in systemic lupus erythematosus to generate topline data by the end of the year, according to an investor presentation (PDF) shared in conjunction with the conference.On the business development front, the CEO cited a desire to “find one more near-term growth asset,” but he added that Biogen is confident in its own R&D capabilities. Besides a potential near-term growth driver, early-stage research is one area where Biogen could stand to bulk up, Viehbacher said. UPDATE: 4:00 p.m. ETGilead’s current opportunity to “bend the arc" of the HIV epidemic is unmatched in the company’s history, CEO Daniel O’Day told an audience during the first day of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Gilead tallied up more than $20 billion in HIV sales last year and is plotting 7 additional product launches in the space of the next 7 years, the CEO said. In addition, after the groundbreaking launch of twice-yearly pre-exposure prophylaxis therapy Yeztugo in July, the company met its guidance of at least $150 million in sales for the drug last year, O’Day said during his prepared remarks. Plus, after CVS confirmed coverage of Yeztugo as of Jan. 1, all major U.S. payers “now have a coverage plan” for the drug, he added.Gilead’s efforts aren’t solely focused on HIV, as the company sees the potential for up to 10 new product launches or label expansions this year and next. Besides its HIV portfolio, those launches could include Livdelzi in primary biliary cholangitis, Hepcludex in hepatitis D and Arcellx-partnered anito-cel in fourth-line relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to Gilead’s presentation.As for business development, Gilead has been involved in some of the behind-the-scenes discussions surrounding recent deals in the industry, CFO Andy Dickinson said during the Q&A portion of Gilead’s presentation. Those talks didn’t materialize for one reason or another, but Gilead continues to explore “small to medium” deals to bolster its current portfolio, the CFO said. UPDATE: 3:35 p.m. ETWhen it comes to the politically-fueled distrust of vaccines in the United States and the narrowing of recommendations for their use in the U.S., Sanofi is playing the long game.“It’s clear this administration has a particular sensitivity around vaccination and indeed pediatric vaccination. Preferring to give parents the choice, we know that is a very delicate line to walk because not everybody’s well informed,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said Monday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.In the third quarter, while sales of Sanofi’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Beyfortus swelled by 228% year over year around the rest of the world, they fell by 25% in the U.S.“I’m asked all the time, ‘What are you going to do to fix this?’ And the truth is, we just need to stay extremely objective and keep presenting the evidence,” Hudson said. “We will have to maintain a steely focus on the long-term future of vaccines and deal with any uncertainty around vaccine coverage rates in the short term based on misinformation, Facebook posts and statements from the top. We’re just gonna have to deal with it and try to provide patients and parents the very best advice that we can.”As for its business development efforts, which have been extensive in recent months, Sanofi will look to fuel its pipeline with more early-stage assets, Hudson added. “I think we’re light in phase 1,” Hudson said, adding that the company is looking to add “eight to a dozen high-quality programs” and that conversations taking place this week at the conference could address that need.In addition to its $9.1 billion buyout of Blueprint and its potential blockbuster Ayvakit in June of last year—which was the company’s largest transaction in seven years—Sanofi struck a $2.2 billion deal last month to acquire Dynavax Technologies and its shingles vaccine Z-1018, which could challenge GSK’s powerhouse Shingrix. Earlier this month, Sanofi also paid $160 million upfront as part of a collaboration with AI biotech Earendil to discover bispecific antibodies for autoimmune diseases.“We think we have enough in mid- to late-stage but I think we have to accept that to underwrite the mid/late-stage pipeline we should continue to add externally,” Hudson said. “It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s a very competitive space with many companies with huge LOEs ahead of us rushing to add their mechanisms. We’re looking for things that launch in the sort of ‘28, ’29, and ’30 horizon.” UPDATE: 1:45 p.m. ETPfizer’s priorities for 2026 include maximizing the value of its recent transactions, delivering on expected R&D milestones, investing for future growth and continuing to incorporate AI across its business, CEO Albert Bourla said during a fireside chat with JPM’s Chris Schott. The CEO is expecting 2026 to be “very rich” in catalysts for the drugmaker, with several anticipated regulatory decisions and trial readouts penciled in for the year, according to a brief investor presentation (PDF) prepared for the event. In the closely watched obesity market, Bourla expects “very fast” growth to $150 billion in annual sales in 2030. The competitive, consumer-driven obesity market will require differentiated assets and commercial reach, which “plays to the strength of Pfizer,” the CEO said. UPDATE: 1:38 p.m. ETFollowing a turbulent 2025, Sarepta Therapeutics is doubling down on the potential of its Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene therapy Elevidys, which was at the center of a safety controversy and regulatory back-and-forth involving two patient deaths last year.“We thought 2025 was going to be an easy year,” Sarepta CEO Doug Ingram said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Monday, referring to his company’s strong positioning with four commercial assets last January.“Well, it wasn’t. It was obviously not only a challenging year, but a few times there were absolutely heartbreaking moments,” he admitted. “But this team that works for me never lost sight of their mission. They never failed to execute, and as a result, thousands of boys live better lives because of them.”While much of Sarepta’s time has been occupied discussing Elevidys’ safety in recent months—and rightly so, according to Ingram— “one needs both sides of the equation,” the CEO explained, pointing to the need to reinforce the efficacy benefits of Sarepta’s gene therapy in ambulatory DMD patients, for whom the treatment is still approved. By Sarepta’s reckoning (PDF), roughly 80% of the ambulatory DMD population—defined as those who can walk independently—remains untreated.To capitalize on the “enormous opportunity” that remains in ambulatory DMD, Sarepta is upsizing its commercial field force, sharpening its healthcare professional outreach and providing deeper dives into Elevidys data, the CEO explained. Plus, Sarepta is plotting fresh initiatives among the patient community to discuss the status of Elevidys in DMD patients who cannot walk independently, Ingram said.Sarepta is awaiting a data readout on cohort 8 of its Endeavor program, expected toward the end of 2026, to shed more light on the potential path back to treating non-ambulatory patients, he added.Also on Monday, Sarepta reported its preliminary performance in the fourth quarter and for all of 2025. For the full year, Sarepta’s sales were $1.86 billion, with $898.7 million of that coming from Elevidys, according to the preliminary numbers.UPDATE: 1:35 p.m. ETApellis has reported that sales of its geographic atrophy (GA) drug Syfovre came in at $587 million for the year, which is a 4% decline from 2024. With the result, the share price of the San Francisco-based company tumbled by 14%. On the plus side, Apellis reported more patent starts than expected for kidney disease drug Empaveli, which should boost 2026 sales well beyond the analyst consensus. (Story)UPDATE: 12:45 p.m. ETAfter a year dominated by policy headlines, Johnson & Johnson and other drugmakers can now turn the page to focus on “fundamentals,” CEO Joaquin Duato told JPM’s Chris Schott during a Monday fireside chat. As far as J&J is concerned, the company is focused on 6 core areas, including oncology, immunology and neuroscience in its innovative medicines business. After J&J in 2023 revealed a plan to deliver 5% to 7% annual sales growth during the back half of this decade, the CEO is now “increasingly bullish” on this forecast. Part of his confidence stems from a portfolio of about a dozen upcoming launches, including the oral IL-23 blocker icotrokinra, which is expected to debut this year. UPDATE: 11:45 a.m. ETKicking off the official schedule at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Chris Boerner, Ph.D., touted six assets with multibillion-dollar potential, including neuroscience drug Cobenfy, Johnson & Johnson-partnered oral factor Xia inhibitor milvexian, pulmonary fibrosis candidate admilparant, BioNTech-partnered PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody pumitamig and two oral CELMoD agents for multiple myeloma. Together, these drugs are critical to strengthening the company's long-term trajectory, Boerner said.Several of these drugs are expected to deliver pivotal data this year. These include Cobenfy from three closely-watched Adept trials in Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, milvexian in atrial fibrillation and secondary stroke prevention, admilparant in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and the two CELMoD drugs—iberdomide and mezigdomide—in previously treated myeloma.As for pumitamig, BMS is hoping that the bispecific can redefine the standard of care in multiple tumor types, Boerner said.“Our strategy with this asset is to be either first or second in each of the indications that we’re pursuing,” Boerner said. “By the end of this year, we expect to add three new registrational trials, including a broader reach across two non-small cell lung indications and a study in head and neck cancer.”The company and its partner BioNTech are also moving forward with trials in earlier-stage disease and novel combinations, including with antibody-drug conjugates and other cancer immunotherapies such as BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine and targeted therapies, he said.More broadly, BMS hopes to launch more than 10 new medicines by 2030, the CEO said.“Taken together, what emerges is a younger and more diversified portfolio that will provide an impressive foundation for sustained growth leading into 2030 and beyond,” Boerner said.UPDATE: 10:20 a.m. ETBudget-minded Moderna, busy with cost cuts over the last year, had some positive news to share on the revenue side of its business on Monday. Moderna's preliminary, unaudited sales for 2025, totaled $1.9 billion, or $100 million more than the midpoint of the company's most recent revenue guidance for the year. The vaccine specialist has been reeling from declining COVID-19 vaccine sales for years, and in 2025 it cut about $2 billion in annual operating costs. For 2026, Moderna expects sales growth reach up to 10% as it works to build a "large seasonal vaccine franchise" and advance its pipeline, CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a corporate update Monday. Moderna's presentation at JPM will take place later today. (Release)UPDATE: 8:50 a.m. ETWhile the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference won't officially start for a few more hours in San Francisco, some industry players are already sharing corporate updates tied to the event. Insmed kicked things off Friday by revealing $144.6 million in fourth-quarter Brinsupri sales, a result analysts at William Blair described as a "blowout sales performance." Various Wall Street analysts heaped praise on the ongoing launch, with the latest number reinforcing the multiblockbuster opportunity in front of the drugmaker, the analysts said. (Story)Alnylam, also underway with a key launch, Monday said it tallied nearly $3 billion in full-year 2025 sales. The company's transthyretin drug sales accounted for the vast majority of the sum, with Amvuttra sales last year reaching more than $2.3 billion. The numbers are preliminary and unaudited; Alnylam plans to share final results in February. Alnylam's Amvuttra won a key approval last year to enter the competitive transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis market, where it's clashing against rivals from Pfizer and BridgeBio. Also Monday, Alnylam touted a new plan called "Alnylam 2030," which is "focused on continuing to successfully scale the company’s operations," the drugmaker said in its corporate update ahead of its JPM presentation. As for 2026, Alnylam's guidance calls for more than $5 billion in sales. (Release)
