Phillip Broadwith

GSK has agreed to buy US cancer biotech firm Nuvalent for over $10 billion (£8 billion). The deal gives GSK two late-stage lung cancer drugs: zidesamtinib and neladalkib, both of which are on expedited regulatory pathways with the US Food and Drug Administration, with an approval decision on zidesamtinib scheduled for September. GSK stepped away from oncology drug development in 2014, selling its portfolio to Novartis.

China is the EU’s second-largest trading partner for goods after the US, with bilateral goods trade reaching €732 billion (£633 billion) in 2024. Chemicals make up almost , and China’s share of overall chemical imports into the EU has . Europe’s trade relationship with China is therefore both hugely important and politically influential. Until recently, the EU has taken a globalist outlook and been relatively accepting of cheap chemical imports.

Ahead of filing formal registration documents for its proposed merger with US firm Axalta, dutch coatings giant AkzoNobel has disclosed that it received – and promptly rejected – two joint counter-offers from Sherwin-Williams and Nippon Paint. The higher of these, rejected on 1 May, offered €73 in cash per AkzoNobel share, totalling around €13 billion (£11 billion).