The need-to-know this morning

• Merck KGaA said it was buying Minneapolis-based Bio-Techne, which makes tools used in life sciences research, for $11.3 billion in cash, building up the German firm's footprint in diagnostics and research supplies.

China

Some lawmakers want even tougher limits on Chinese biotechs

Washington is already weighing new restrictions on U.S. biotech ties with China, just a year after passage of the Biosecure Act. Lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about China’s rapid ascent as a drug development superpower.

The proposals under discussion could expand scrutiny of U.S. investment in Chinese biopharma, and limit the FDA’s use of clinical trial data generated in China, STAT’s John Wilkerson writes. Specifically, some lawmakers have floated the idea of adding biotech to the list of industries covered by the COINS Act, which prevents American firms from investing in sensitive technologies being developed by China and other “countries of concern.” 

Part of the reason lawmakers are already considering further action is that the Biosecure Act was watered down. But, as Thomas Bollyky, the global health director for the Council on Foreign Relations, told John, “Just disengaging from China isn't going to be a solution for a more competitive U.S. industry on its own.”

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A postscript from BIO: China’s been top of mind for just about everyone here at this conference. The country’s presence in the exhibition hall has been scattershot: Its pavilion was dwarfed by flashier displays from South Korea, India, even Maryland. But it’s clear that the industry is shifting heavily eastward — and attendees here interpreted China's muted presence in San Diego this week as an intentional move at a fraught moment.

economics

GLP-1 boom drives health spending to record highs

The blockbuster success of GLP-1 medicines is pushing U.S. health care spending to unprecedented levels, STAT’s Bob Herman writes. Americans spent $5.7 trillion on health care in 2025, government figures published yesterday in the journal Health Affairs show.

The economy grew about 5% last year, but spending across every health care sector grew at an even faster rate. Prescription drug spending jumped more than 11%, and obesity and diabetes treatments from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly became an increasingly large share of the market — accounting for 4% of the $519 billion in retail prescription spending.

“A big part of this is GLP-1s,” said John Poisal, a deputy director CMS’s statstics group. “That is pushing [spending] growth rates up for private health insurance, for sure; for Medicare, for sure.”

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