Pharmaceutical Executive Daily: President Trump Planning New Medicaid Drug-Pricing Deals

Welcome to Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, your quick briefing on the top news shaping the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry.

In today's Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, Osivax and GC Biopharma launch a long-term collaboration to combine their OVX836 and GC FLU vaccines into a single next-generation seasonal influenza shot, Ying Huang of K2 Therapeutics speaks on why so few drugs make it from the lab to FDA approval, and the Trump administration opens a new round of Most Favored Nation Medicaid drug pricing deals.

Osivax has entered a long-term collaboration with GC Biopharma to co-develop and commercialize a next-generation seasonal influenza vaccine combining two complementary immune approaches in a single injection. The partnership pairs Osivax's OVX836, a broad-spectrum influenza A candidate designed to drive T-cell responses against the virus's conserved nucleoprotein, with GC FLU, GC Biopharma's WHO-prequalified inactivated vaccine that induces antibody responses against hemagglutinin. Osivax gains a non-exclusive global license outside Japan and Korea, while GC Biopharma keeps exclusive South Korean rights and will supply the GC FLU component in exchange for royalties.

Pharmaceutical Executive speaks with Ying Huang, chief executive officer of K2 Therapeutics, on why so few drug candidates make it from the lab to market. Huang argues that the steep odds, drugs take eight to ten years and one to two billion dollars to reach approval, with only 40% of Phase I candidates advancing to Phase II, are what justify the company's strategy of licensing clinical-stage assets rather than building programs from scratch. He points to China's biotech licensing boom, deals reached $51.9 billion in 2024, as evidence of where that model is accelerating fastest.

Finally, the Trump administration opens a new round of voluntary Most Favored Nation drug pricing deals aimed at lowering what state Medicaid programs pay for outpatient drugs. The agreements would tie U.S. Medicaid prices to what manufacturers charge in other high-income countries, building on deals already in place with 17 drugmakers including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson; the companies joining this new round have not yet been named. The administration projects the broader Most Favored Nation framework could generate $529 billion in savings across U.S. drug markets over the next decade.

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