💊 Big Pharma’s big appetite

The CEO of Revolution Medicines, Mark Goldsmith, is staying tight-lipped on what could be the biggest biotech deal since Pfizer bought Seagen for $45.6 billion in 2023.

But Merck, the company reportedly in talks to buy Revolution Medicines, is being more cavalier. CEO Mark Davis said he sees an opportunity for deals worth “multi tens of billion” dollars.

“We are not limited from a balance sheet,” Davis said. “It’s more, where do we see strategic opportunity?”

Why this is happening is clear:

• As some of the most lucrative drugs lose exclusivity in the next few years, pharmaceutical giants are increasingly shopping around for biotechs to add to their portfolios — and they are more than happy to pay a hefty premium for the right company.

• Merck’s cancer drug, Keytruda, is the second-most sold drug after Eli Lilly’s GLP-1, tirzepatide. The drug is expected to have brought in $31.6 billion in sales last year, or about half of the company’s annual revenue, and its patent is running out in the not too distant future.

• Companies like Pfizer, Amgen, and Novo Nordisk find themselves in similar positions.

• Eli Lilly is reportedly in talks to acquire French biotech Abivax for €15 billion.

And just the whiff of a possible acquisition is good for shareholders: on Tuesday, Brian Lian, CEO of Viking Therapeutics, a late-stage GLP-1 biotech, suggested that interest in his company is mounting. After he said that there are “more parties sort of circling the space,” shares jumped double digits. 

The Takeaway

For some Big Pharma companies, business development spending is now about equal to, or more than, research and development. In 2025, announced global biotech deals totaled $228.4 billion, up from $132.3 billion in 2024. And 2026 could be even bigger.

Novo Nordisk’s CEO, Mike Doustdar, told Bloomberg the company is “in the market for big or small… As long as it’s complementary to our own assets, then we can go very big, very big.” 

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Is it finally time for us all to have our own “Jetsons”-like Rosey the robot? The biggest tech companies in the world think so. 

• Elon Musk says Tesla’s yet to be released Optimus humanoid robot could boost the company’s valuation to $25 trillion. (It’s worth about $1.45 trillion today.) 

• Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is pitching hardware and software for robots, fawning over remote-controlled droids with childish delight during his keynote speeches. 

• Meta is reportedly hard at work building a “Metabot” in its new AI lab. 

• Even the Trump administration is going “all in” on boosting the US robotics industry. 

But before you get too excited about having your own C-3PO, know that many of the recent demos showing nimble bots throwing roundhouse kicks, pouring tea, and playing ping-pong were carefully controlled demos and human-operated gimmicks.

So we made an interactive display of some of the more interesting humanoid robots in the works. We’ve got the details on what tasks they are designed for and found videos of the machines in action to enjoy, though to be honest, we never enjoy anything as much as watching robots fall down.

The Takeaway

This new category of consumer tech is still a long way off from being available to the average consumer. The fast-moving developments in AI are showing promise for these robots’ brains, but few are entirely autonomous. Not only is the technology still very much under development, but the demand for an expensive robotic butler seems more like science fiction than fact. Of course, that hasn’t stopped investors from pouring cash into robotics startups. 

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After 19 years at the helm, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stepped down on Tuesday following the team’s playoff ouster on Monday night. As the only coach in NFL history to never have a losing record in at least 15 total seasons, plus the fact that the Steelers will now be looking for just their fourth coach since before Apollo 11 landed on the moon, there’s a lot of history to note around Tomlin’s tenure in the Steel City. 

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• 🏈 Super Bowl: News that OpenAI is planning a splashy one-minute ad during the Super Bowl assured traders that the company will indeed be advertising during the game. Who else will join it? The market* is pricing in a 70% chance of a Netflix ad, a 60% chance of a Temu ad, a 79% chance of a Coinbase ad, and an 18% chance of an Nvidia ad. 

• 🎾 Tennis: It’s the Australian Open, and prediction markets are currently pricing Jannik Sinner at a 49% chance to win among the men, followed by Carlos Alcaraz with a 35% chance of winning. Among the women it’s a wider field, with Aryna Sabalenka leading the pack with a 35% chance of winning, followed by Iga Swiatek (16%) and Elena Rybakina (11%).

• ⛽ Gas Prices: Concerns about a spike in the price of gasoline amid tensions in Iran relaxed a bit yesterday, with the prediction market for the average price in January seeing the chance of gas averaging $2.80 or more per gallon fall sharply from 89% at around 2 p.m. ET to 58% as of 3 p.m. ET, the sharpest drop seen all month.  

*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.

• Tesla, not feeling the love for self-driving technology, will stop selling it as a one-off as of Valentine’s Day. Here are two takes on why

• Crypto, on the other hand, was feeling the love: bitcoin rallied to a three-month high and the number of staked ethereum hit a record high

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on the bank’s plans to boost spending by $9 billion in 2026: “Trust me”

• Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives warned that President Trump’s new focus on household electricity bills risks “slowing down the data center buildouts”