Lilly’s Obesity Pill Heads to the FDA, AbbVie Bets on Psychedelics, HHS Unveils More Change

Eli Lilly posted data Tuesday from a second Phase III trial of its oral weight loss therapy orforglipron, providing the company with all it needs to head to the FDA with a new drug application. For more in-depth discussion on the oral weight-loss space, check out a special episode of The Weekly. And stay tuned to BioSpace for more unique coverage of this market as we learn which investigational assets will make it across the regulatory finish line and which will join the weight-loss wasteland. 

On the business side of biopharma, AbbVie turned back to neuropsychiatric therapies this week, acquiring partner Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ lead depression candidate for $1.2 billion. The deal is a display of resilience for AbbVie in the neuropsychiatric space as well, after the stunning failure last November of schizophrenia asset emraclidine—picked up in its nearly $9 billion acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics. And is the cooler late summer weather thawing the IPO market? Neuropsych-focused LB Pharma revealed in an SEC filing on Friday that it plans to take the plunge, ending a six-month stalemate in biotech IPOs.  

Finally, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been busy this past week. On Monday, the CDC named Retsef Levi—a known vaccine critic—to head the agency’s COVID-19 immunization working group, just as reports surfaced that the Trump administration could be “within months” of banning the COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. Meanwhile, the FDA issued new draft guidance for cancer drug developers that prioritizes the use of survival data, and the agency began publishing drug-related adverse event reports daily.  

 

HHS itself has also been the subject of recent headlines, announcing that it will no longer recognize employee unions, and last week, hundreds of HHS staffers penned an open letter calling on Secretary Kennedy to tone down what they called “dangerous and deceitful statements” that have fostered distrust against federal health workers, exposing them to physical harm. This followed the Aug. 8 shooting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta.  

 

Finally, multinational pharmaceutical companies spent more than $48 billion on partnerships with China in the first half of 2025 alone, according to a new report from IQVIA—more than in all of 2024.