The head of the Basel-headquartered giant is no fan of bidding wars when it comes to dealmaking. "If we are outbid and it’s not within our envelope, we just walk away and we’re okay with that.”

Following a pair of $10bn+ deals in Q4 2023 and a $16.5bn takeout in Q1, the second quarter saw no acquisition priced as high as $5bn, Evaluate notes. Aggregate deal volume and values dropped from Q1.

Only three of the 10 new therapies approved by the US FDA also have been approved in the European Union, while both of the EU gene therapy approvals followed FDA clearance, a Pink Sheet analysis shows.

VX-880 is the first iteration of a cell therapy strategy which Vertex believes can bring curative treatment for Type 1 diabetes, but competition in this field is building.