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Guardant, Merck ink multi‑year deal – Liquid and tissue tests to support trials
Guardant Health and Merck announced a multi‑year partnership to develop and commercialize companion diagnostics using Guardant’s portfolio of liquid and tissue biopsy assays to support patient...
GSK buys Rapt for $2.2B—ozureprubart eyed for 12-week dosing
GSK agreed to acquire Rapt Therapeutics for $2.2 billion to gain global rights to ozureprubart, an anti‑IgE antibody candidate being developed as a less‑frequent dosing alternative for food...
Boston Scientific to acquire Penumbra for $14.5B—cardio and neurovascular scale-up
Boston Scientific announced a $14.5 billion cash-and-stock deal to acquire Penumbra, expanding its portfolio into mechanical thrombectomy, embolization and neurovascular devices. The transaction...
Merck–Moderna vaccine sustains 49% melanoma risk cut at five years
Long‑term follow-up from a trial combining a Merck‑Moderna cancer vaccine candidate with Keytruda shows a sustained 49% reduction in risk of recurrence or death at five years, boosting the...
AstraZeneca pays up to $630M for China rights to AbelZeta CAR‑T
AstraZeneca agreed to pay up to $630 million to acquire the remaining China rights to C‑CAR031 from AbelZeta Pharma, consolidating global control of the GPC3‑targeted armored CAR‑T under...
D3 Bio wins IND clearance for KRAS G12D inhibitor—first‑in‑human trial cleared
D3 Bio secured FDA IND clearance for D3S‑003, a KRAS G12D small‑molecule inhibitor, enabling a first‑in‑human phase I study in patients with advanced solid tumors harboring that mutation. The...
Engineered living glue: bacteria sense bleeding and secrete therapeutics in IBD models
Researchers engineered nonpathogenic E. coli with a blood‑inducible circuit that secretes a barnacle‑derived adhesive protein (CP43K) and the gut‑repair factor TFF3 in response to gastrointestinal...
Engineered suppressor tRNA broadens AAV delivery—disease‑agnostic translation tool
A Nature Biotechnology study reported an engineered UGA suppressor tRNA designed for in vivo use with AAV vectors to restore protein expression across premature stop codons, offering a potentially...
Exciva raises €51M ($59M) Series B to push Alzheimer’s agitation candidate into Phase 2
German biotech Exciva closed a €51 million ($59 million) Series B to advance its lead program for agitation in Alzheimer’s disease into a mid‑stage clinical trial. The funding will support a Phase...
AI designs bacteriophages from scratch—scientists flag biosecurity implications
Researchers used AI models to design complete bacteriophage genomes de novo, demonstrating the ability to generate synthetic phages that can be synthesized and potentially deployed for therapeutic...
Monod Bio unveils AI‑designed ‘NovoBodies’—compact, customizable antibody mimics
Monod Bio, a spinout from David Baker’s lab, presented its AI platform for designing compact antibody mimics called NovoBodies—single‑chain, 27 kDa proteins engineered to reproduce antibody...
GSK buys Rapt for food-allergy IgE antibody: $2.2B deal
GSK agreed to acquire Bay Area biotech Rapt Therapeutics for $2.2 billion, taking rights to ozureprubart outside China and accelerating its entry into food-allergy therapeutics. The deal,...
Boston Scientific to buy Penumbra: $14.5B cardiovascular push
Boston Scientific announced a $14.5 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of Penumbra to expand its vascular and neurovascular portfolio. Under the terms, Penumbra shareholders may elect $374 per...
AstraZeneca pays up for C-CAR031 China rights — $630M pact
AstraZeneca agreed to acquire the remaining China rights to C‑CAR031 from AbelZeta Pharma for up to $630 million in upfront and milestone payments, giving the pharma firm full global control of a...
Engineered living glues target gut bleeding: autonomous IBD therapy
Two Nature Portfolio items (Nature Biotechnology and Nature) report engineered nonpathogenic E. coli strains that detect gastrointestinal bleeding and secrete an adhesive protein plus therapeutic...
UGA suppressor tRNA for AAV delivery unveiled — broad tropism move
Researchers published an engineered UGA‑suppressor tRNA designed to broaden AAV‑based therapeutic reach by enabling in vivo suppression of UGA stop codons, potentially allowing disease‑agnostic...
D3 Bio wins IND clearance for KRAS G12D inhibitor — first‑in‑human next
D3 Bio announced FDA IND clearance for D3S‑003, a KRAS G12D small‑molecule inhibitor, clearing the path to a first‑in‑human phase I trial in advanced solid tumors harboring the KRAS G12D mutation....
CAR‑T manufacturing boost: dextran nanoparticles and real‑time monitoring
Two manufacturing advances promise to address CAR‑T scalability: a dextran‑based nanoparticle platform shown to enhance CAR‑T production efficiency, and industry uptake of real‑time metabolic cell...
AI builds bacteriophages from scratch — breakthrough with biosecurity alarm
Researchers demonstrated AI models capable of designing complete bacteriophage genomes de novo, enabling synthetic generation of phages with tailored host ranges and payloads. The advance...
Exciva raises €51M ($59M) Series B to push Alzheimer’s agitation drug
Heidelberg‑based Exciva closed a €51 million ($59 million) Series B to advance its clinical candidate into phase 2 testing for agitation in Alzheimer’s disease. The financing will fund a mid‑stage...