Heather McKenzie

Senior Editor

Heather McKenzie is a professional journalist with more than five years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since joining BioSpace, she has written more than 200 features and breaking news articles with a particular focus in neuroscience and gene therapy. She has also traveled internationally to cover global biotech hubs such as Israel. In previous roles, she has covered current affairs, sports, education and politics. She previously spent eight years as a senior content producer for executive-level business conferences in the pharma/biotech, legal, energy and business strategy sectors. In her free time, Heather enjoys creative writing, spending time with family and playing with her energetic Russian Blue cat Roofus. She hails from Toronto and has also lived in Chicago and Chesapeake, Virginia. You can reach her at heather.mckenzie@biospace.com.

Podcast

JPM26 Recap, Novo’s Oral Wegovy Soars as Lilly’s Orforglipron Is Delayed, IPOs Return

The obesity market and Most Favored Nation drug pricing were among the topics de jour at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last week, while smaller biotechs sought to assure investors that their regulatory ducks are in a row; Novo Nordisk’s oral obesity pill got off to a hot start while the FDA delayed a decision on Eli Lilly’s investigational offering; and SpyGlass Pharma and AgomAb Therapeutics join the 2026 IPO club.

January 21, 2026

1 min read

Heather McKenzie

Organizing Solutions and organizer concept as a Management leadership taking charge as a leader sorting out diverse ropes into an organized patterns as a business concept for strategy and control.

FDA

JPM26: Beam, Cabaletta, More Zero In on Regulatory Alignment After Tumultuous Year

As biotechs faced investors at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week, they emphasized agreement with the FDA on clinical trial design and regulatory pathways to approval. Atara, meanwhile, lamented the agency’s “complete reversal of position” after its therapy for a rare surgical complication was rejected.

January 19, 2026

6 min read

Heather McKenzie

AbbVie's office in South San Francisco, California

Cancer

JPM26: AbbVie Seeks Respect for Oncology Pipeline Following RemeGen Buy

Primarily known as an immunology and neuroscience company, AbbVie wanted to put the biopharma world on notice during its J.P. Morgan presentation: its oncology portfolio is underappreciated. This week, the Illinois-based company dove into the sizzling PD-1/VEGF space with a licensing deal with China-based RemeGen.

January 14, 2026

2 min read

Heather McKenzie

Neurodegenerative disease

JPM26: With Leqembi Launched, Biogen Looks To Expand Alzheimer’s Presence

Three years after the accelerated approval of its anti-amyloid Alzheimer’s therapy, Biogen—neck and neck in the market with Eli Lilly and its Kisunla offering—is focused on a near-term FDA decision for a subcutaneous induction dose of Leqembi, a presymptomatic readout in 2028 and a clutch of next-generation candidates.

January 14, 2026

5 min read

Heather McKenzie

Podcast

Deals Roll at JPM26, Policy Front and Center, IPOs Are Back, FDA Stays Busy

AbbVie and Novartis strike billion-dollar pacts while attendees at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference await that one big M&A deal and Merck teases limitless buying capacity; Eli Lilly readies for potential orforglipron launch while Novo Nordisk laments compounders; the IPO window cracks open; and the FDA concludes that GLP-1s do not pose a suicide risk.

January 14, 2026

2 min read

Heather McKenzie

South San Francisco, CA, USA - May 1, 2022: Exterior view of the Merck Researches Laboratories in South San Francisco, California. Merck & Co., Inc. is a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey. The company does business as Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) outside the United States and Canada.

Events

JPM26: Confident Merck Sees Growth Through Keytruda Loss of Exclusivity

Merck CEO Rob Davis expressed high confidence during the company’s J.P. Morgan presentation on Monday, revealing that the company is open to deals in the range of “multi tens of billions of dollars.”

January 13, 2026

1 min read

Heather McKenzie

Policy

Flagship CEO Calls Out Attacks on Science, Warns of China Dominance

In his annual letter, Flagship Pioneering’s Noubar Afeyan lays out a choice between near-term “human-made miracles” and a reversion to the pain and suffering of past diseases due to “growing contempt” in the U.S. for the scientific method.

January 12, 2026

4 min read

Heather McKenzie

Drug Development

Biopharma Momentum To Propel Rare Disease, Cancer, Neuro Forward in 2026

After years stuck in the “doldrums,” the biopharma sector is in a “very good place” heading into the new year, analysts told BioSpace, with both rare and chronic diseases headlining investor and R&D interest as JPM26 kicks off.

January 12, 2026

6 min read

Heather McKenzie

Podcast

Novo Launches Oral Obesity Pill, Lilly Targets Lofty Revenue, FDA and M&A in Focus

Novo Nordisk follows Christmas oral Wegovy approval with quick launch; Eli Lilly is headed for $94.3 billion in annual revenue by 2027, analysts predict; nine more pharmas strike Most Favored Nation deals but half remain unsigned; experts call for stability and rare disease action at FDA, and all eyes are on M&A ahead of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference next week.

January 7, 2026

2 min read

Heather McKenzie

Neuroscience

Deep Dive: Huntington’s at a Crossroads

Recent breakthroughs and three decades of progress in treating Huntington’s disease

January 6, 2026

2 min read

Heather McKenzie

A handshake of businessmen. Modern design with a positive context. Concept of help, support, and agreement between businessmen. Modern art collage, trendy magazine style.

Obesity

Lilly Doubles Down With Nimbus, Paying $55M for Preclinical Obesity Drug

Eli Lilly kicked off a pivotal 2026 campaign with a multi-year collaboration with current partner Nimbus Therapeutics worth a potential $1.3 billion for a preclinical obesity therapeutic. The deal follows a 2022 partnership struck by the companies to target the AMPK protein in cardiometabolic diseases.

January 6, 2026

2 min read

Heather McKenzie

Business concept, disagreement, dispute, collapse. The gap between two people. Obstacle to the merger.

FDA

FDA Went Against Adcomm Votes More, Held Fewer Meetings in 2025

In a year that saw advisory committees placed under a particularly bright microscope at the FDA, the agency held fewer meetings than usual and agreed with its advisors only 57% of the time, Jefferies reported.

January 6, 2026

3 min read

Heather McKenzie

Digital overload and its impact on the human brain, showcasing fragmented thoughts, information overload. Abstract design art collage. Social media digital addiction, mental health, stress, anxiety

Business

BioSpace Editors’ Top 5 Biggest News Stories of the Year

Pfizer and Metsera, Sarepta and uniQure made the list with dramatic tales. The other two spots went to the regulatory challenges facing biopharma under the new administration, especially in the vaccines sector.

December 22, 2025

10 min read

Annalee Armstrong

Digital compass. Business strategic explorer, Vision crisis, Mission path, Agency creative, Digital strategy, Market decision, Achievement strategy, Financial stock, Company vision concepts

FDA

FDA Policy Tracker: 2025 Was a Year of Change

Policy initiatives have come fast and furious at the FDA this year. While guidances on rare diseases and vaccines have consumed most of the ink, policy shifts aimed at improving FDA efficiencies and reshoring U.S. manufacturing also got some attention. Here, BioSpace rounds up more than a dozen initiatives relevant to the biopharma industry.

December 22, 2025

13 min read

Heather McKenzie

Podcast

Lilly’s Triple Triumph, Prasad’s COVID Error, J&J’s Surprise Voucher, M&A Targets

Eli Lilly’s retatrutide exceeds expectations in Phase III, capping off a sparkling 2025 for the obesity titan; an internal FDA safety review finds no confirmed pediatric deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines, and Commissioner Marty Makary says no black box warning will be attached to the shots; and BioSpace looks at six biotechs that could be pharma’s next buy.

December 17, 2025

2 min read

Heather McKenzie