Behind the Headlines Episode 15–Neuroscience, Weight-Loss Drugs, and Tariffs

Behind the Headlines is a bi-weekly panel discussion examining the latest trends, readouts, and other factors that drive pharmaceutical news and innovation. Each episode features consultants, venture capitalists, scientists, patient advocates, and journalists discussing the prior weeks’ top news while seeking to highlight the more enduring lessons that hide behind the headlines.

In episode 15, Mike Exton, CEO and board director, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals; Andrew Thomson, CEO and co-founder, Modulate Bio; Konstantinos Tsioris, co-founder and president, OneCyte Biotechnologies; and Cheryl Barton, director, Pharmavision, discuss the advancement of neuroscience, developments in weight loss drugs, and the evolving political climate’s impact on the industry.

Neuroscience is “having a moment”, according to the panel, with advancements, such as Vertex’s Journavx, a non-opioid treatment for moderate to severe acute pain (1). The panel wondered if this is the beginning of a set of new central nervous system (CNS) breakthroughs. As evidence, the panel pointed to Professor Sergiu Pasca of Stanford, et al.’s work to replicate one of the most prominent human nervous pathways for sensing pain, which their licensing office is calling an “assembloid”, in a lab dish (2). The researchers noted that missing in these assembloids, importantly, “were organoids representing other brain regions that are critical to the discomfort experienced by people who are in pain. The assembloids themselves don’t ‘feel’ any pain,” Pasca said. “They transmit nervous signals that need to be further processed by other centers in our brains for us to experience the unpleasant, aversive feeling of pain” (2).

In a roundup of headline news, the panel shared their opinions on pharmaceutical tariffs and their stock market ramifications, including reshoring of manufacturing opportunities and also infrastructure investments, such as Novartis’ new spending of approximately $23 billion in infrastructure in the United States (3). The panel also examined weight loss drug fluctuations, including Pfizer discontinuing development of experimental weight-loss pill danuglipron, due to drug-induced toxicity in a trial patient (4), while Lexicon Pharmaceuticals stands to gain up to $1 billion ($75 million upfront payment) from an exclusive license agreement with Novo Nordisk A/S for LX9851, a first-in-class, oral non-incretin development candidate in obesity and associated metabolic disorders (5).

References

1. FDA. FDA Approves Novel Non-Opioid Treatment for Moderate to Severe Acute Pain. Press Release. Jan. 30, 2025.
2. GEN. Key Neural Pain-Sensing Pathway Recreated in a Lab Dish. Genetic Engineering News. Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. Genegnews.com. April 10, 2025.
3. Ohlen, E. This Pharma Giant Will Invest $23 Billion in the U.S. It’s a Sign Trump’s Tariffs Are Working. Barron’s. April 11, 2025.
4. Beasley, D. Pfizer Ends Development of Weight-loss Pill Danuglipron. Reuters. April 14, 2025.
5. Lexicon. Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Announces Exclusive License Agreement with Novo Nordisk for LX9851. Press Release. March 28, 2025.