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Inflammation / Inflammatory bowel disease pipeline momentum
Gilead advanced its immunology diversification with mid-stage data for emvistegrast in ulcerative colitis. In the SWIFT Phase 2 study presented at United European Gastroenterology Week in...
Biotech dealmaking: rare disease RNA platform expansion
Merck KGaA struck a major rare-disease acquisition, agreeing to buy Silence Therapeutics for $1.3 billion in an all-cash deal. The transaction adds divesiran, Silence’s wholly owned siRNA...
Diagnostics M&A: broaden prostate cancer risk testing footprint
Labcorp moved to deepen its diagnostics presence with an agreement to absorb BioReference assets in a deal valued at $722 million. The transaction targets BioReference’s laboratory testing...
Oncology pipeline: antibody-like immune engineering enters early clinical testing
A new Phase 1 signal emerged for an engineered NK/T-cell engagement strategy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. In nine patients, Rapport’s investigational NK510 program—described as...
RNA drugs regulation and safety evidence base
A new cross-platform review assessed adverse-event patterns across 18 FDA-approved RNA therapeutics. The analysis found that side-effect profiles depend more on delivery chemistry and...
Regulatory-policy risk: FDA compounding expansion for peptides under White House review
A pending U.S. regulatory action under White House review could expand access to certain peptides via pharmacy compounding. The American Academy of Peptide Medicine is scheduled to meet with the...
Cybersecurity threat targeting the biotech ecosystem
A purported biotech conference in Boston appears to have been a ransomware/front-style phishing operation targeting life-science professionals. Proofpoint reported that the BioTold 2026 event...
Technology R&D: clinical long-read genomics data platform expands
PacBio and Verily Health announced a multi-year collaboration to pair long-read sequencing with clinical data governance and AI-ready analysis. The agreement connects PacBio HiFi workflows with...
Clinical/operational diagnostics: AI-backed imaging and workflow tools
A prospective study reported high performance from a CAIX-targeted PET/CT approach for clear-cell kidney cancer lesion detection. Using [68Ga]Ga-DPI-4452 PET/CT, researchers reported 97.9% lesion...
Corporate/portfolio: AstraZeneca hires Oracle for clinical trial recruitment
AstraZeneca moved to improve clinical trial recruitment by tapping Oracle for support. The reported initiative centers on using Oracle’s tools and data capabilities to strengthen recruitment...
Merck’s $1.3B move into late-stage rare blood siRNA for polycythemia vera
Merck KGaA agreed to acquire London-based Silence Therapeutics in an all-cash deal valued at $1.3 billion, adding late-stage rare-disease siRNA Divesiran to its pipeline. Silence shareholders will...
Labcorp expands FDA-cleared 4Kscore prostate test reach via $722M BioReference acquisition
Labcorp announced it will acquire BioReference Laboratory’s laboratory testing assets and related service operations in a deal valued at $722 million in cash at closing, with an earnout of up to...
Phase 3 readout eases FDA efficacy doubts for Disc’s bitopertin in erythropoietic protoporphyria
Disc Medicine reported Phase 3 success for its AMPA receptor modulator bitopertin (APOLLO study) in erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP), addressing FDA concerns that had driven skepticism around...
US policy shift implications: hepatitis B protection could weaken under delayed infant vaccination
A U.S. modeling analysis projects that delayed hepatitis B vaccination policies would increase chronic infections acquired by age 20 relative to universal vaccination at birth. The study forecasts...
New clinical evidence for early viral protection: Sabin-strain inactivated polio vaccine shows broad infant responses
A randomized trial in 300 infants found that a Sabin strain-based inactivated polio vaccine induced seroconversion rates of 91.58% to 100% across ten poliovirus strains. The study reported no...
RNA editing platform advance: engineered human AGO2 enables higher C-to-U editing with comparable off-target profiles
Researchers reported a human-protein approach to RNA base editing by engineering Argonaute 2 (AGO2) to deliver targeted C-to-U edits. In HEK293T cell experiments, the AGO2-based system achieved,...
AAV3B antibodies may block eligibility for liver-directed gene therapy
A clinical immunology study found neutralizing antibodies against AAV3B in 33% to 36% of healthy adults, with intermediate titers in 19% of antibody-positive individuals. In a smaller Wilson’s...
UK Biobank immune profiling expansion: IMU Biosciences selected to generate 100M+ immune data points
IMU Biosciences announced a collaboration with UK Biobank and a technology stack that will generate large-scale, high-dimensional immune profiling datasets. The effort is designed to produce more...
Cardiac diagnostics: CAIX PET/CT finds most lesions in prospective clear-cell kidney cancer study
A prospective multicenter study reported that CAIX-targeted [68Ga]Ga-DPI-4452 PET/CT detected 97.9% of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma lesions, compared with 47.1% detection using 18F-FDG PET/CT....
Biopharma sentiment lifts after downturn: BPSI Q3 2026 reaches positive territory
The Biopharma Sentiment Index (BPSI) reported a sharp improvement in industry mood in Q3 2026, moving into positive territory for the first time since the downturn after the pandemic. The BPSI...