#biotech #healthcare #pharmaceutical - Moderna and Merck’s Cancer Vaccine Fueled a Biotech Rally. Can It Last? | WSJ’s Take On the Week: WSJ Podcasts

13 September 2026

Despite a rough past week for the healthcare sector, pharmaceuticals and biotech stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 this year. 

Investors have gotten excited over cancer treatment breakthroughs for Moderna, Merck and Revolution Medicines—plus regulatory shakeups at the FDA. But is market hype running ahead of reality? Can the rally last? 

 On this week’s episode, co-hosts Telis Demos and Miriam Gottfried are joined by WSJ’s Heard on the Street columnist David Wainer to discuss how AI and competition from China are shifting the market, where pharma M&A is headed next, and how everyday investors should navigate the sector. 

 

Chapters: 

02:34 - Trump, RFK Jr., and Policy

04:14 - Pharma vs. Biotech, Explained

05:30 - The AI Rotation Into Healthcare

06:10 - Moderna, Revolution Medicines, and Cancer Breakthroughs

11:24 - The Pharma M&A Playbook

13:41 - Can AI Speed Up Drug Discovery?

15:25 - Is Healthcare a Defensive Trade?

18:08 - GLP-1 Wars: Eli Lilly vs. Novo Nordisk

20:36 - Index or Stock Picking?

22:15 - Is China a Threat to U.S. BioTech?

24:24 - A DeepSeek Moment for Pharma?

26:13 - uniQure and the FDA

WSJ's Take On the Week