GSK Functionally Cures Hepatitis B, Lilly's $3.8B Vaccine Pivot, and Base Editing Holds for 18 Months – This Week in Biotech #102
A landmark antisense win in 254 million patients, Lilly's tenth deal of 2026 redraws its franchise map, and Verve's base editor holds for 18 months (May 22–28, 2026).
Welcome back to This Week in Biotech by Biotech Blueprint, edition 102, covering biotech and pharma news from May 22 to 28, 2026.
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VIDEO SUMMARY
THIS WEEK’S KEY TAKEAWAYS 🔑
GSK and Ionis published Phase 3 data in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that bepirovirsen, an antisense oligonucleotide, functionally cured roughly one in five chronic hepatitis B patients across two trials totaling 1,838 patients. The standard of care for the past two decades has been indefinite antiviral therapy that suppresses the virus without ever clearing it. Twenty percent functional cure rates after 24 weeks of dosing is not a marginal improvement. Combined with Madrigal-Arrowhead’s PNPLA3 deal earlier this month and Intellia’s CRISPR Phase 3 win in hereditary angioedema, oligonucleotide modalities have now stacked three category-defining wins in five weeks across virology, metabolic disease, and rare disease.
Lilly’s $3.8 billion vaccine buying spree is the most strategically interesting move the company has made all year. The official framing was about preventing disease at the source rather than treating it later, which reads as polite cover for the real story. Lilly is using GLP-1 cash flow to build franchise breadth it has never had. Curevo’s Phase 2 shingles asset goes directly at GSK’s $4 billion Shingrix franchise. LimmaTech’s Phase 1 Staphylococcus aureus vaccine targets surgical site infections, an indication with no approved vaccine. Vaccine Co.’s preclinical Epstein-Barr virus candidate is a bet on multiple sclerosis prevention. This is Lilly’s tenth acquisition of 2026, and roughly half of those deals are in modalities Lilly does not currently run at scale: gene editing, non-viral delivery, vaccines, dual-payload ADCs. You can read the strategy in the deal flow: buy delivery and infrastructure now, deploy retatrutide cash on indication coverage later.
CVS Caremark reversed its 2025 Wegovy-only obesity formulary this week, adding Foundayo as a covered option starting June 1 and restoring Zepbound as a preferred option October 1, with Wegovy’s products remaining covered. Lilly now has obesity drug coverage across all three major pharmacy benefit managers. The bear case had been that Foundayo’s launch would lag because PBM access was structurally tilted toward Novo, and indeed Foundayo had been pacing at about 30% of oral Wegovy’s six week prescription trajectory. That handicap is now lifted. Lilly shares moved up about 6% on the news. The obesity fight is back to being about efficacy, convenience, and net pricing.
Daiichi Sankyo’s Datroway became the first TROP2 antibody-drug conjugate approved in first-line triple-negative breast cancer this week, with overall survival of 23.7 months versus 18.7 months on chemotherapy. That is the first time any targeted therapy has beaten chemotherapy on survival in this patient population. ADCs are now first line therapy in tumors that have been chemotherapy-only for decades, which is the same trajectory Enhertu took in HER2-positive breast cancer: second-line approval, then label expansion, then first line displacement.
BIOTECH/PHARMA NEWS 🧬
🔹 GSK and Ionis released full Phase 3 data on May 28 for bepirovirsen in chronic hepatitis B, alongside publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. In B-Well 1, 20% of patients on bepirovirsen plus antivirals achieved functional cure, defined as sustained loss of hepatitis B surface antigen with undetectable viral DNA, versus 0% on placebo plus antivirals. B-Well 2 showed 19%. Cure rates climbed to 25-28% in patients with lower baseline viral protein levels. Patients with undetectable disease at week 48 discontinued standard antiviral therapy. Bepirovirsen is an antisense oligonucleotide developed by Ionis and licensed to GSK. The FDA decision is due October 26. Chronic hepatitis B affects roughly 254M people globally, and the current standard of care, nucleoside analogs, suppresses the virus but rarely eliminates it. A 20% cure rate with a 24-week course is a category redefining number. The open question is pricing and access in the regions where the disease burden is heaviest (China, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia).
🔹 Lilly announced three vaccine acquisitions on May 26 worth up to $3.83B in milestone-contingent value. Curevo (up to $1.5B) has a Phase 2 next-generation shingles vaccine using a synthetic adjuvant that has shown comparable immune response with fewer side effects than Shingrix. LimmaTech (up to $780M) has a Phase 1 Staphylococcus aureus vaccine for surgical site infection prevention. Vaccine Co. (up to $1.55B) is preclinical with an Epstein-Barr virus vaccine, which has growing scientific support as a multiple sclerosis prevention target. Upfront amounts were not disclosed. This is Lilly’s tenth M&A move of 2026 and brings 2026 deal spend above $5B across vaccines, gene editing, non-viral DNA delivery, and dual payload ADCs. The strategic frame is that Lilly is treating GLP-1 cash flow as a one-time opportunity to build modality and indication breadth before the next cycle.
🔹 CVS Caremark reversed its 2025 Wegovy-only obesity formulary on May 28, adding Foundayo (oral orforglipron) effective June 1 and restoring Zepbound as a preferred option October 1. Wegovy stays covered. Lilly’s obesity drugs now have coverage across all three major pharmacy benefit managers. The structural handicap on Foundayo’s launch, which had been running at about 30% of oral Wegovy’s early prescription pace, is now lifted. Lilly shares moved up about 6% on the announcement. The commercial competition resolves back to a head-to-head on efficacy, convenience, and net pricing, and Lilly’s retatrutide submissions later this year only widen the efficacy gap.
🔹 Verve Therapeutics, now owned by Lilly, presented Phase 1 data for VERVE-102 at the European Atherosclerosis Society Congress on May 26, with simultaneous publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial enrolled 35 patients across six dose levels. LDL cholesterol reductions ranged from 9% to 62% across doses, with PCSK9 protein reductions of 55% to 88%. Durability of effect held for up to 18 months after a single infusion, the longest follow-up disclosed for any in vivo base editing therapy. No treatment-related adverse events. The top dose effect approaches what Amgen’s Repatha delivers as a chronic biologic that costs about $6k a year. Lilly plans to launch Phase 2 by the end of 2026. The regulatory question has shifted from whether the technology works to whether 18 month durability is sufficient to support a one time administration label rather than periodic redosing.
🔹 Apogee Therapeutics secured up to $1.3B in non-dilutive royalty financing from Blackstone Life Sciences to fund three Phase 3 trials of zumilokibart, an anti-IL-13 antibody, in atopic dermatitis. Phase 2 data showed 66% of mid-dose patients achieved 75% skin clearance versus 23% on placebo. The drug’s structural differentiator is dosing frequency: 2 to 4 injections per year versus every 2 to 4 weeks for Dupixent and Ebglyss. Trials begin in the second half of 2026. The fact that Blackstone is willing to underwrite three Phase 3 trials non-dilutively says something about how the eczema biologic market is now structurally bid for differentiated dosing rather than just efficacy.
🔹 Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s Datroway received FDA approval on May 22 in first line metastatic triple negative breast cancer for patients ineligible for checkpoint inhibitor therapy. The Phase 3 trial showed median overall survival of 23.7 months versus 18.7 months on chemotherapy, a hazard ratio of 0.79. This is the first TROP2 antibody-drug conjugate approved in first-line triple-negative breast cancer and the first targeted therapy to show an overall survival benefit over chemotherapy in this population. Datroway now competes against Gilead’s Trodelvy and pushes ADC platforms further into first-line settings that have been chemotherapy-only for decades.
🔹 Biogen and Denali announced that BIIB122, an LRRK2 inhibitor, missed its primary endpoint in the Phase 2b LUMA trial in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. The partners are ending development in that population. The trial tested whether LRRK2 inhibition slowed motor and clinical progression in idiopathic patients regardless of LRRK2 mutation status, and the answer was clearly no. The parallel LIGHTHOUSE trial in LRRK2 mutation-positive patients continues. For Denali, the commercial story remains AVLAYAH, their brain-penetrant Hunter syndrome therapy launched in April. For Biogen, this is the second neurology Phase 2b miss in twelve months and reinforces a pattern of large cap neurology platforms failing on symptom-progression endpoints despite biomarker rationale.
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