#77 - Yuletide isotopes, venture stockings, & the hunger helper

The coffee break biotech roundup, by SomX.

Season’s greetings, my radioactive reindeers,

This week’s stocking is heavy with biotech treats: the UK fires up its nuclear infrastructure to fuel the next wave of precision cancer therapies, Labiotech’s 2025 recap exposes a divide between those building the pipes and those circling the drain, Europe’s long-awaited Biotech Act lands with a thud, analysts offer cautious cheer for 2026, and a tiny appetite protein explains why some of us keep drifting back to the cheeseboard.

Until the sleigh bells ring,

Father Dodo 🎅🏼

If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of Biotech Dodo, send us a message.

Discover 🔍

☢️ UK nuclear revolution powers next-generation precision cancer therapies (NIA): The UK is investing £18.8M to turn recycled nuclear fuel into a dependable source of lead-212 for targeted alpha therapies, a precision approach designed to destroy cancer cells while keeping damage to healthy tissue to a minimum. Led by UKNNL and Medicines Discovery Catapult, the programme connects isotope extraction, radiochemistry and early clinical development, laying the groundwork for clinical trials and patient access.

Our take: Lead-212 has been creeping up oncology Christmas lists as targeted alpha therapies gather pace, yet supply has remained patchy and tightly rationed. Only a small club of countries can produce it at the volumes and consistency that clinical programmes demand. By hard-wiring nuclear infrastructure directly into the drug development pipeline, the UK is converting a longstanding bottleneck into a strategic advantage.

⌛ Biotech in 2025: A retrospective (Labiotech): This year marked a phase shift as GLP-1s tightened their grip on the market, AI settled into lab work, and radiopharmaceuticals moved from niche to core portfolio strategy. On the finance side, capital stayed choosy, Europe looked threadbare, and M&A in Q3 & Q4 started to resemble frantic Christmas Eve shopping, with big pharma panic-buying assets to wrap up.

Our take: 2025 neatly sorted biotech into two piles: companies building the boring plumbing that lets therapies scale, and companies being dismantled for parts. The winners understood that manufacturing supply, trial-ready datasets and software that holds up under real-world conditions matter more than swanky pitch decks. Mid-caps, meanwhile, spent the year trying to survive – often being picked over like Christmas leftovers on Boxing Day.

🇪🇺 European Commission unveils EU Biotech Act as it lags behind other countries (Endpoints): The first half of the EU Biotech Act has finally landed, promising speedier cross-border trials, extended IP protection and fresh manufacturing support. A €10bn health biotech pilot with the European Investment Bank aims to keep startups and mid-sized outfits afloat through 2027, as Europe wrestles with the fact it’s pulled just 7% of global health biotech venture capital over the past decade.

Our take: Europe tends to lose biotechs when early promise collides with the need for serious capital, GMP manufacturing and coordinated, multi-country regulation. Too often, European investors finance biotech as a short sprint to partnership rather than a decade-long grind through development, while US funds write bigger cheques, tolerate longer timelines, and stay for follow-on rounds. The Act addresses real structural gaps, but lands in a market where many companies have already hung their stockings on US chimneys.

📈 2026 outlook: Biotech poised to outperform bear markets of ‘21–24, analyst says (Fierce Biotech): After a bruising start to the year, biotech staged a sharp comeback. The XBI fell 20% early on, bottomed out in April, then rebounded nearly 75% to levels not seen since 2021. William Blair thinks that recovery can carry into 2026, as long as good clinical data continues to be rewarded and drug launches avoid heavy-handed pricing intervention. Deal-making also picked up, with 2025 logging the highest M&A volume in a decade, even if headline deal sizes stayed modest.

Our take: The 75% rally ran on psychology more than fundamentals. Investors spent three years pricing in disaster scenarios – aggressive pricing caps, vaccine programmes being dismantled, and the FDA losing scientific credibility. The sector is now climbing because catastrophe looks avoidable rather than inevitable, which sets an unusually low bar for 2026. Simply keeping the reindeer pulling the sleigh now counts as solid performance.

And finally…

🧀 This tiny protein helps control how hungry you feel (ScienceDaily): Researchers have identified MRAP2, a helper protein required for proper signalling by MC3R, a receptor involved in appetite and energy use. Cell studies show MC3R signalling strengthens only when MRAP2 is present in the right balance. Mutations in MRAP2, already linked to obesity, disrupt this support and weaken appetite control even when the receptor itself is intact.

Our take: Appetite regulation turns out to be a committee operation, with helper proteins deciding whether hunger signals actually get through the door. That helps explain why appetite drugs work unevenly across patients – the underlying machinery differs from one person to the next. It’s a reminder that biology rarely works solo, preferring the whole ensemble to be present and correct. Sadly, even the most disciplined signalling network won’t keep Dodo away from the Christmas cheeseboard and mince pies.

Tune in 🎧

🛠️ How to Successfully Build and Exit a MedTech: Ray Cohen shares lessons from a $3.7B exit and Dr. Sarah Matt discusses her new book, The Borderless Healthcare Revolution.

💬 Introducing Voices of Innovation: Hosted by Cecilia from The Catalytic Site, Voices of Innovation is a new podcast that discusses behind the scenes of early-stage biotech – the people, the science and the careers you can build.

🧬 Jonathan Gluck: A personal account of navigating myeloma and CAR-T therapy: Writer Jonathan shares his 20-year journey with multiple myeloma, from the early days of treatment to receiving CAR-T therapy, and reflects on what it means to live – and write – through chronic uncertainty.

Apply ✍️

🧪 Technical Account Representative, GenScript: Enjoy talking science as much as running experiments? Translate lab know-how into tailored solutions, support customers end-to-end, and bridge bench science with real-world biotech projects.

✈️ Senior CRA, ICON: Comfortable living out of a suitcase? Oversee global trial sites; safeguard data and patient safety; support investigators; and keep complex studies compliant, consistent and moving forward.

⚗️ Senior Research Scientist – Chromatographic Bioanalysis, Charles River: Love clean peaks and tidy data? Lead regulated bioanalysis studies, validate methods, mentor scientists, and ensure high-quality results that stand up to GLP and GCP scrutiny.

RSVP 📆

🧬 12–14.01 | The Biotech Showcase | San Francisco, USA: The programme offers in-depth panels and discussions with leading experts, investors, and innovators exploring the most transformative trends shaping the future of biotech.

🧑‍⚕️ 12–15.01 | J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference | San Francisco, USA: The industry’s largest and most influential healthcare investment event, JPM will bring together global leaders, fast-growing companies, technology innovators, and the investment community.

🐝 22.01 | Accelerating Innovation: Access support to solve real-world challenges | Manchester, UK: A University of Manchester event connecting researchers and industry to fast-track solutions through collaboration.

🤝 24.01 | London Entrepreneurs Network | London, UK: A networking evening for life science founders, pharma professionals, and investors to exchange ideas and build partnerships.

Got news, jobs or events you think are worth coo-ing over? Post an event here, or email us at biotechdodo@substack.com!

We’re SomX – a communications and creative agency trusted by biotech, pharma and healthtech pioneers. We craft strategy, content, PR and design that translate complex biology into compelling stories and investor‑ready excitement. Get in touch to amplify your science beyond the lab bench.