STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about U.S. biotech’s China problem, a Regeneron flop, and much more

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating, because that oh-so familiar routine of online calls, dashing about, and deadlines has predictably returned. But what can you do? The world, such as it is, continues to spin. So why not give it a nudge in a better direction with a delicious cuppa stimulation? Our choice today is English breakfast, an old standby. Please feel free to join us. Meanwhile, we have assembled the latest laundry list of informative items for you to peruse. We hope you have a meaningful and productive journey today and, as always, do keep in touch. … There’s a schism in America’s drug business and the problem is China, STAT explains. Fledgling startups and pharmaceutical giants alike are addicted to Chinese drugs, filling their pipelines with would-be blockbusters developed at enviable speed and bought on the cheap. They’ve spent some $60 billion on Chinese molecules in the first three months of 2026 alone, according to state figures. That’s on pace to double last year’s total, which was already 10 times larger than the one from 2021. But the question of whether to partner with Chinese firms — or see them as rivals — is tearing biotech apart, pitting peers and partners against one another and souring relationships in an otherwise close-knit corporate community.   President Trump earlier this year bought as much as $680,000 in stock of Eli Lilly as the agencies he oversees undertook an agenda that largely benefited the company, KFF Health News reports. On May 14, the U.S. government released ethics disclosures revealing a list of stock and bond trades made on Trump’s behalf from January to March of this year. The trades for Lilly stand out. That’s because the timing of Trump’s purchases coincides with several favorable government decisions benefiting the drugmaker’s GLP-1 busin