Industry coverage tracks the money around peptides: Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk earnings, pipeline shifts, M&A, IPOs, peptide CDMO capacity, and the telehealth and pharmacy economy that GLP-1s built.
The two stories that keep moving the most market cap: how fast oral GLP-1s reach approval (orforglipron, oral semaglutide, oral wegovy, danuglipron's exit), and what happens to the compounded-peptide channel as the FDA tightens. Hims, Ro, LifeMD, GoodRx, and Amazon Pharmacy have all rerouted distribution in the past year. Behind them, contract manufacturers like Bachem, PolyPeptide, and BASF have been the bottleneck no one talked about until they were.
Stories here name the company, the deal, and the dollars. Earnings, partnership, regulatory hit — whatever moved the share price gets covered.
Zealand Pharma said on Monday, October 5, 2026 that its share buyback program, launched May 7 at about DKK 1.3 billion (roughly $200 million), was completed ahead of its October 31 deadline after lead manager Danske Bank closed it once the full amount was reached. Zealand bought back 4,408,500 shares at an average price of DKK 294.88 and now holds 5,279,342 treasury shares, about 7.37% of its share capital. The Danish peptide company's lead obesity drug, the amylin analog petrelintide partnered with Roche, entered Phase 3 on September 22.
CVS Caremark's addition of Lilly's Zepbound back to its commercial template formularies as an additional preferred weight-loss option takes effect on Thursday, October 1, 2026, the date the pharmacy benefit manager set when it announced the reversal on May 28. NBC News reported that about 25 million to 30 million people are covered under Caremark's standard formulary, which had excluded Zepbound in favor of Novo's Wegovy since 2025. Plan sponsors that use the templates can still customize coverage, so whether a given patient's plan covers Zepbound depends on the employer.
BioMarin disclosed in a September 30, 2026 SEC filing that it signed a final settlement and license agreement with Ascendis Pharma on September 24, effective retroactively to August 28, turning the companies' August 31 term sheet into a definitive deal over Yuviwel (navepegritide), Ascendis's once-weekly prodrug of C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP). The license covers navepegritide products for all indications, including achondroplasia, for which the FDA approved Yuviwel in children 2 and older in February 2026, and hypochondroplasia. Ascendis will pay royalties of 20% of U.S. net sales and 18% in the European Union, Brazil, and South Korea from first commercial sale until May 2030, and the companies will dismiss all pending patent litigation with prejudice.
Contract manufacturer SK pharmteco announced on Wednesday, September 30, 2026 a five-year investment of more than $200 million in its U.S. development and manufacturing operations, centered on its Rancho Cordova, California site. The plan adds GMP kilo-scale peptide manufacturing with advanced liquid chromatography, expected to be operating in late 2026, along with new small-molecule API suites and about 100 long-term U.S. jobs. CEO Joerg Ahlgrimm said the expansion responds to 'unprecedented demand from our broad customer base.'
Novo and Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 an exclusive license giving Novo global rights to HRS-1596, a GLP-1/GIP dual receptor agonist being developed for once-weekly oral dosing, outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, where Hengrui keeps the rights. Novo will pay $300 million upfront, and the deal is worth up to $2.6 billion including development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus royalties on sales. HRS-1596 is described as Phase 1-ready for weight management and type 2 diabetes; the deal requires Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. Novo R&D chief Martin Holst Lange said the company wants to explore whether the drug can 'raise the bar for convenience.'
Boehringer Ingelheim and the WHO Foundation announced on Thursday, September 24, 2026 a three-year collaboration, funded by a $5 million contribution from Boehringer, to help health systems in resource-limited settings monitor and care for obesity and related metabolic conditions. The program is meant to support the WHO Acceleration Plan to Stop Obesity (2022-2030) and to bring health and non-health sectors, along with people living with noncommunicable diseases, into policy discussions. The announcement did not name countries or include access to any specific medicine; Boehringer's obesity pipeline includes survodutide, a GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonist licensed from Zealand Pharma.
Swedish drug-delivery company Nanexa announced on the evening of Thursday, September 24, 2026 a global exclusive license and collaboration agreement giving Novo Nordisk rights to use its PharmaShell platform in up to five development programs for peptide-based drugs in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other cardiometabolic diseases. PharmaShell uses atomic layer deposition to apply an ultra-thin inorganic coating to individual drug particles to control their release, and the companies are targeting monthly and quarterly injection schedules. Nanexa can receive up to €1.165 billion, of which €615 million is an upfront payment plus development and regulatory milestones and the rest is sales milestones, along with low single-digit royalties; Novo will lead development and commercialization. Reuters reported that Nanexa's shares were up about 122% in Stockholm early on Friday, September 25.
A federal jury in the Northern District of California found on Thursday, September 24, 2026 that Eli Lilly breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in its license agreement with Nektar Therapeutics for rezpegaldesleukin (rezpeg), an autoimmune disease drug, and awarded Nektar $90 million in damages plus interest to be set by the court. Nektar filed the suit in August 2023, and the trial began on September 8. The verdict remains subject to post-trial proceedings, and any judgment may be appealed.
InnoCare Pharma announced on Thursday, September 24, 2026 a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly to discover medicines against up to five undisclosed targets in cancer and autoimmune disease. InnoCare can receive up to $100 million in upfront and near-term payments and up to about $3.25 billion in development and commercial milestones, plus single-digit tiered royalties on sales. InnoCare will use its own discovery platform to find and advance compounds; the announcement did not specify the type of drug.
Viking Therapeutics announced on Thursday, September 24, 2026 that it priced 7,857,143 shares of common stock at $35.00 per share (about $275 million) and $225.0 million of 2.00% convertible senior notes due October 15, 2032, after proposing the offerings on September 23. The notes convert at about $50.75 per share, roughly a 45% premium to the stock price, and underwriters have options on another 1,178,571 shares and $33.75 million of notes. Viking estimates net proceeds of about $258.2 million from the stock and $218.0 million from the notes, for its VK2735 and VK3019 programs and general purposes. The offerings are expected to settle on September 25, three days after Viking reported VK2735 maintenance-study results.
BoomRay Pharmaceuticals, a radioligand developer based in Suzhou, China, said on September 22, 2026 that Novartis took an exclusive worldwide license to an undisclosed preclinical radioligand therapy asset. BoomRay can receive up to $900 million, including an upfront payment and development, regulatory, and sales milestones, plus royalties on net sales; the upfront amount, target, isotope, and indication were not disclosed. Novartis global oncology head Shiva Malek said the asset complements the company's radioligand portfolio, which includes the peptide-based Lutathera and the PSMA-targeted Pluvicto. The license was announced one day after the Telix–ITM merger.
PTC Therapeutics said on Monday, September 21, 2026 that it completed its acquisition of ST-920 (isaralgagene civaparvovec) from Sangamo Therapeutics. ST-920 is a one-time AAV gene therapy for Fabry disease that is designed to enable long-term production of the missing alpha-galactosidase A enzyme in place of chronic enzyme replacement therapy. Under terms announced in August, PTC won the asset in Sangamo's Chapter 11 auction for $111 million upfront plus up to $100 million in approval milestones; Eli Lilly separately bought Sangamo's zinc finger programs for $50 million. ST-920 holds FDA Orphan Drug, Fast Track, and RMAT designations and EMA PRIME eligibility, and PTC expects to complete a rolling Biologics License Application for accelerated approval in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Novo Nordisk shares fell about 8% in both Copenhagen and New York on Monday, September 21, 2026, the day of its London Capital Markets Day, according to GEN. BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman wrote that Novo is "targeting 2026-2030 revenue growth in line with industry peers, likely underwhelming for investors," and noted that consensus already models about 3.53% annual growth for Novo against roughly 3.65% for pharma peers, so the target appeared priced into Wall Street estimates. The company used the event to set 2030 ambitions that included more than five potential blockbuster launches.
Novo Nordisk set out its 2030 ambitions at its Capital Markets Day in London on Monday, September 21, 2026: launch more than five multi-blockbusters, run at least five Phase 3 programs in obesity and diabetes and at least five in other therapy areas, serve more than 60 million patients, build capacity to serve 10 times more people with obesity on oral GLP-1, keep a broadly stable operating margin, and deliver 2026-2030 revenue growth in line with industry peers. It also targets more than DKK 150 billion (about $23 billion) in pipeline sales in 2035, and it said the ambitions are not financial guidance. Shares fell as much as 9% and were down 4.7% by 11:24 GMT, BNN Bloomberg reported, as management faced questions on pricing and dealmaking. Management said CagriSema would launch early next year, followed by standalone cagrilintide and high-dose CagriSema in 2028, with zenagamtide planned to launch in oral and injectable forms at the same time; BNN Bloomberg also reported a plan to scale manufacturing tenfold to supply 15 million patients with oral obesity therapies by the end of the decade.
Telix Pharmaceuticals announced late on September 20, 2026 U.S. Eastern time (September 21 in Australia) an agreement to merge with Germany's ITM Isotope Technologies Munich for $1.65 billion upfront on a cash-free, debt-free basis, including 105.8 million Telix shares, plus up to $700 million tied to regulatory approvals and sales milestones. The milestones are linked to ITM-11 (177Lu-edotreotide), a somatostatin receptor-targeted treatment for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors that completed the Phase 3 COMPETE trial and has fully enrolled a second Phase 3 study, COMPOSE. Telix describes ITM as the world's leading supplier of therapeutic radioisotopes and the only producer of globally scaled commercial-grade lutetium-177, with actinium-225 and terbium-161 production as well. The deal needs Telix shareholder and regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of fiscal 2026.
mAbxience, majority-owned by Fresenius with partial ownership by Insud Pharma, and Sandoz announced on Friday, September 18, 2026 a licensing, development, manufacturing, and commercialization agreement for a biosimilar candidate of emicizumab for hemophilia A. mAbxience will develop and manufacture the product at its GMP-approved facilities in Spain and Argentina, and Sandoz will hold exclusive global commercialization rights outside Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. The companies estimate the global reference market at about $5.7 billion. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Several analysts raised their Ultragenyx price targets on Friday, September 18, 2026, a day after the FDA's standard full approval of FAYUVI for the neurologic manifestations of Sanfilippo syndrome type A (MPS IIIA) in children. Cantor Fitzgerald moved to $39 from $33 with an Overweight rating, raised its probability of success to 100% from 90%, and valued the MPS IIIA opportunity at about $12 to $13 per share; Canaccord Genuity moved to $39 from $37 (Buy), Morgan Stanley to $20 from $18 (Equal Weight), and Citi to $32. Cantor also estimated that the priority review voucher Ultragenyx received with the approval, together with another voucher the company already holds, could bring in about $400 million if sold. Ultragenyx expects FAYUVI to be available to ship to qualified treatment centers within 30 to 60 days.
Orbis Medicines, based in Copenhagen and Lausanne, announced on Thursday, September 17, 2026 a multi-target discovery and license agreement with Novo to design oral macrocycle drugs for undisclosed cardiometabolic targets. Orbis can receive up to $1.4 billion in upfront and development and commercial milestone payments plus tiered royalties, and Novo will make a strategic investment of undisclosed size. The work uses Orbis's nGen platform, which combines generative AI, high-throughput synthesis, and a multi-parameter optimization engine trained on the company's experimental macrocycle data. Orbis chief executive Morten Graugaard said its synthetic macrocycles have reached up to 18% oral bioavailability in preclinical studies. Orbis launched in January 2025 with a €90 million (about $93 million) Series A led by NEA, with Lilly Ventures, Forbion, and Novo Holdings among its investors.