Scrip's Five Must-Know Things - Mar.2, 2026

What It Covers

Scrip's weekly briefing covers five biopharma developments: Zealand's GLP-1 durability argument, MSD's AI-doubled discovery pipeline, CAR-T advances at Penn Medicine, a 400%-plus rebound in 2025 deal values, and a halved US IPO market.

Key Questions Answered

• •GLP-1 Retention Strategy: Zealand CEO Adam Steensburg argues the obesity market will be won on treatment persistence, not maximum weight loss. Up to 12% of Americans have tried GLP-1 therapies, yet only a fraction remain on treatment, with roughly half citing gastrointestinal side effects as the reason for stopping.
• •AI-Accelerated Drug Discovery: MSD's chief AI officer reports that deploying AI and in silico simulations has doubled the number of molecules entering discovery. Their TEDDY foundation model improves target identification, while AI-assisted clinical documentation has cut some preparation timelines from multiple weeks down to just two days.
• •CAR-T Expansion Targets: Penn Medicine's Bruce Levine identifies CAR-T persistence, tumor trafficking, and manufacturing constraints as the core barriers limiting efficacy beyond B-cell cancers. Researchers are pursuing dual-targeting CARs, inhibitory CAR designs, and CRISPR-based epitope editing specifically to crack acute myeloid leukemia and solid tumors.
• •2025 Deal Market Recovery: Biopharma M&A total potential value rose 402% versus 2024, with average deal size reaching $1.8B, up 93%. Alliance average deal value surged 643% to $429.6M, and six of the ten largest alliances by value involved a major company licensing assets from a China-based biotech firm.