• Indiana: Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire two new cancer biotech companies this month. Lilly will pay up to $300 million for CrossBridge Bio, a preclinical start-up with technology and a lead program that could help patients access more powerful cancer treatments. CrossBridge has developed antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that can carry two drug payloads to tumors, providing wider therapeutic capabilities than other ADCs. Lilly has also reached a deal to acquire Kelonia Therapeutics for $3.25 billion, though the price could reach up to $7 billion if Kelonia reaches certain clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones. Currently, Kelonia is developing a next-generation treatment for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. The acquisition will allow Lilly to boost its position in the blood cancer segment of the global cancer drug market, which is worth $240 billion. (Vinluan, MedCity News, 4/15; Thomas/Rockoff, Wall Street Journal, 4/20)
• Maryland: NIH spending on new medical research has decreased by roughly $1 billion this year compared to prior years. Instead of canceling grants en masse like last year, the Trump administration is now using a "computational text analysis tool" to vet grants before approval. According to the New York Times, some of the terms the tool scans for include racism, gender, and vaccination refusal. However, the screening tool has led to a slowdown in research spending, delaying thousands of scientific projects. Between October and late March, NIH only awarded roughly 1,900 new and competitive grants, less than half the number it granted during the same time under the Biden administration. The government shutdown last fall also delayed grant review meetings for months, further setting back spending on medical research. "It means that people get fired because there is uncertainty about whether the grant will come through,” said Joshua Gordon, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "It means budgets get busted. It means research projects get stalled." Although canceled grants and spending delays were alarming last year, Gordon said that he is "more worried this year." (Mueller/Hwang, New York Times, 4/22)
• South Carolina: A widespread measles outbreak in South Carolina was finally declared over after several months. The outbreak, which began last October, sickened almost 1,000 people and was the largest measles outbreak since the disease was eliminated from the United States in 2000. It led to 21 hospitalizations, with some patients developing severe complications like brain swelling or pneumonia. Many impacted patients were unvaccinated children, and most cases occurred in Spartanburg County. This school year, only 89% of school-age children in the county had up-to-date vaccinations, including the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) shots, down from 94% in the 2021-2022 school year. According to the New York Times, local clinics, pharmacies, and doctors administered almost 4,000 additional MMR shots to help contain the spread of the outbreak. However, state health officials also noted that the highly contagious virus infected so many unvaccinated individuals that there were no more vulnerable people left to infect. "Will we let out a big sigh of relief? Yes," said. Brannon Traxler, CMO of the state's department of public health. "But we will not just throw a big party and never think about measles again." (Rosenbluth, New York Times, 4/26)

The federal government has cut millions — even billions — of dollars in federal funding for health and science research. How are these cuts impacting stakeholders across the industry today, and what should we beware of looking forward?