Argenx the tier-jumping European biotech, believes its proposed $2.2 billion purchase of Forte Biosciences will add a second multi-indication product upon which it can run the strategy that has made autoimmune drug Vyvgart efgartigimod alfa a blockbuster. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury’s analysts discuss the deal and put it in the context of a new cohort of large-cap companies increasingly active in biotech M&amp;A. The analysts also assess how recent releases from Anthropic, NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI and Amazon fit into biopharma R&amp;D workflows — and with one another. Finally, they analyze the 1H26 clinical and regulatory catalyst scorecard, which therapies hit their milestones, which missed, and what’s next through year-end. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast has been brought to you by CBRE. View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/660296 #BiotechMA #ArtificialIntelligence #DrugDevelopment #ClinicalTrials #Biopharma 00:01 - Sponsor Message: CBRE 01:57 - BioCentury AI Connector 05:47 - Argenx Acquires Forte 08:06 - Rise of Biotech Buyers 13:12 - AI Giants&#x27; Tech Stack 24:20 - Anthropic Enters Drug Development 27:41 - 2026 Catalyst To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com. Reach us by sending a text

Ep. 379 - Argenx M&A, AI giants and biopharma, catalyst scorecard

BioCentury This Week

BioCentury This Week is brought to you by CBRE, the global leader in commercial real estate services, with a specialized practice dedicated exclusively to life sciences. From early-stage biotechs to established companies scaling biomanufacturing operations, CBRE's life sciences experts help companies find, build and optimize spaces where discovery happens. With deep market intelligence across the nation's innovation clusters, top-notch facilities and a network of investors and tenants, CBRE has what it takes to be a new business.

This blend of knowledge and relationships ensures you receive the best advice at every stage, so you can focus on bringing therapies to patients.

Argenx, the market-capped, tear-jumping European biotech, has executed on its first-ever M&A deal it's paying more than $2 billion. For Forte, we'll discuss how the deal fits with Argenx's growth strategy. Plus, we mapped AI giants' bets across the biopharma tech stack. We'll tell you what we found.

And BioCentury's first-half scorecard for clinical and regulatory catalysts. Who hit, who missed, and what's coming up through the end of 2026. I'm Jeff Cranmer, host of the BioCentury This Week podcast. And joining me today, Editor-in-Chief Simone Fishburn, my fellow Executive Editor, Selina Koch, Executive Director of Biopharma Intelligence,

Lauren Martz, Paul Bananos, who is our news editor, and Lindsay Martin, biopharma analyst. Well, before we dig right into that big piece of deal-making news, we've got some new news here at BioCentury. Simone, what's new? Well, this is a perfect connection, hear the word, to Lindsay's AI story.

As BioCentury has now launched what is going to be the first of a few AI features and products. Our subscribers will, I hope, see little red star with little stars signifying AI on our articles and our menu bar.

Ep. 379 - Argenx M&A, AI giants and biopharma, catalyst scorecard

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Ep. 379 - Argenx M&A, AI giants and biopharma, catalyst scorecard

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.