Vaxcyte's vaccine against 31 strains of a pneumonia germ matched Pfizer's and Merck's shots in 3,500 adults

The rest of the day

21 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Shionogi buys IntraBio for $2 billion

   Shionogi, a Japanese drugmaker, said on Monday it will pay $2 billion in cash for IntraBio, a company based in Texas. [5] IntraBio sells one drug, Aqneursa, approved in the US in 2024 for Niemann-Pick disease type C, which affects about one person in a million there. [5] The drug fights a toxic build-up of fats inside cells. [5] In September it won a second US approval, for ataxia-telangiectasia, a more common inherited disease that also harms movement. [5] IntraBio's sales were $68 million in 2025. [5]

   Why it matters — Shionogi is paying about 29 times last year's sales for a drug that is already approved twice. [5] It adds to a rare-disease business Shionogi began last year by buying the ALS drug Radicava. [5]

2. 03

   Roche licenses a Parkinson's drug from Alector

   Genentech, part of the Swiss drugmaker Roche, will pay Alector $100 million up front for a Parkinson's drug called AL050, and up to $1.17 billion more if it meets set goals. [6][7] Alector's shares rose 72% before trading opened on Monday. [6] AL050 replaces an enzyme, GCase, that some people with Parkinson's make too little of because of faults in a gene called GBA. [7] Too little GCase is linked to toxic protein clumps in brain cells. [7] The drug has not yet been tested in people. [8]

   Why it matters — The hard part is getting a large enzyme into the brain, and Alector keeps ownership of the shuttle it built to carry it there. [7] Roche is also working on its own ways across the barrier that protects the brain. [7]

3. 04

   New York declares a measles emergency

   New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state disaster emergency over measles on Monday. [11] The state has 108 cases this year, 92 of them since 15 July in rural communities where too few people are vaccinated. [11] The order lets midwives, pharmacists and other health workers give measles shots. [12] Next door, Pennsylvania passed 1,004 cases, its biggest outbreak in more than three decades, with five deaths and 198 people taken to hospital. [13]

   New York108 cases

   Pennsylvania1,004 cases

   Why it matters — Health experts say outbreaks spread once fewer than 95% of people are vaccinated. [11] In November the Pan American Health Organization, the regional health body, meets to decide whether the US and Mexico keep their measles-free status. [11]

4. 05

   Florida plans looser school vaccine rules

   Florida's health department has proposed dropping four vaccines from school requirements, among them the pneumococcal vaccine. [14] Shots against measles, polio and whooping cough stay required by law. [14] The proposal would let parents opt out for a moral or ethical belief and keep a child's record off the state register. [14] A computer model published in the journal PNAS found that dropping the measles requirement could set off the largest US measles epidemic in nearly 50 years. [14]

   Why it matters — The same model found that vaccinating one child cuts measles spread three times as much as vaccinating one adult, because children spend so long close together at school. [14]

5. 06

   A death at a Siberian plague institute

   Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old worker at a plague research institute in Irkutsk, Siberia, died on 2 October, two days after falling ill at work. [15] Russia's health watchdog says she died of pneumonia of unknown cause and found no germs from her work in her samples. [15] Unconfirmed Russian reports say she broke a test tube holding the plague germ. [17] Russian media report nearly 200 people she met are under medical watch. [17] Staff have been kept inside the institute since 2 October. [15]

   Why it matters — The World Health Organization says the cause is not confirmed and the risk to the public is low. [16] The US has offered help, and it is unclear whether Russia will accept it. [16]

6. 07

   Genmab's cancer drug outlasts a rival

   Genmab, a Danish drugmaker, reported that its drug Rina-S kept ovarian cancer from growing for a median 9.5 months in 109 patients whose cancer no longer responded to platinum chemotherapy. [9] Rina-S is an antibody joined to a cell-killing drug, aimed at a protein called FRa on cancer cells. [9] AbbVie's approved drug Elahere aims at the same protein and managed 5.6 months in its own final-stage trial. [9] Unlike Elahere, which carries a warning for eye damage, Rina-S showed no eye problems. [9]

   Rina-S (Genmab)9.5 months

   Elahere (AbbVie)5.6 months

   Why it matters — The two figures come from different trials with different patients, so this is not a head-to-head test. [9] Genmab's final-stage trial, which measures the same thing, is due to share some data this year. [9]

7. 08

   Lilly's leukaemia pill approved for first use

   The FDA, the US drug regulator, on Friday approved Eli Lilly's pill Jaypirca as a first treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, a blood cancer. [8] It was first approved only for patients who had already had two other treatments. [8] The new approval covers patients without a gene change called a 17p deletion, which goes with fast-moving disease. [8] Jaypirca sold $192 million in the second quarter, 56% more than a year earlier. [8]

   Why it matters — First use opens the drug to patients who have had no other treatment for the cancer. [8] Lilly got the drug through its $8 billion purchase of Loxo Oncology. [8]

8. 09

   Lilly widens its Gate Bioscience deal

   Eli Lilly added up to $870 million to a deal with Gate Bioscience, a California company founded in 2021. [10] Their first deal, last year, was worth up to $856 million. [10] Gate makes small drugs that stop harmful proteins at the one channel many proteins must pass through to leave a cell. [10] Neither company said which diseases the new deal targets. [10]

   Why it matters — The $870 million adds an up-front payment to later payments tied to research goals, and the companies gave no split. [10] Gate's own lead drug is aimed at prion disease, a fatal brain illness caused by misfolded proteins. [10]

9. 10

   First woman in Europe joins a Strep B vaccine trial

   Menna Hulme, from Shropshire in England, became the first woman in Europe to join a trial of a vaccine against Group B Streptococcus. [18] The bacterium can pass from mother to baby at birth. In the UK it affects about one baby in 1,750 and kills about one a week. [18] Today the main protection is antibiotics through a drip during labour. [18] The trial, run by Keele University's Will Parry-Smith, gives the vaccine in pregnancy, and Hulme had hers at 34 weeks. [18]

   Why it matters — There is no routine test for the bacterium in UK pregnancies, and Hulme says hers was found by chance. [18] Parry-Smith says a vaccine would matter most in poorer countries, where sick babies are harder to treat. [18]

10. 11

    A Nobel for a light tool already in eye trials

    Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University in Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Wurzburg won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday. [32] Their work lets scientists turn nerve cells on and off with light, using a light-sensitive protein first found in green algae. [19] In one trial a man blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, which destroys the eye's light-sensing cells, partly regained his sight. [19] A harmless virus carried the protein's gene into his eye, and goggles turned images into pulses of light. [19]

    Why it matters — The Nobel committee called these treatments the first steps toward medical use, in trials that are still running. [20]

11. 12

    Cancer rising faster in the under-50s

    Cancer is rising faster in people under 50 than in older people in England, the US and the Netherlands, an analysis by World Cancer Research Fund, a charity, found. [21] In England, bowel cancer in under-50s rose from 3.9 to 8.4 cases per 100,000 people between 2001 and 2023. [21] Prostate cancer in men under 50 went from 1 to 3.6 per 100,000. [21] Lung cancer in under-50s fell in all three countries as fewer people smoked. [21]

    Bowel, 20013.9 per 100,000

    Bowel, 20238.4 per 100,000

    Prostate, 20011 per 100,000

    Prostate, 20233.6 per 100,000

    Why it matters — The charity points to obesity, diet, alcohol and too little exercise, and says earlier diagnosis does not explain the whole rise. [21] Cancer Research UK, a charity, is funding a 250,000-person study of the rise in bowel cancer. [21]

12. 13

    Women report more pain than men

    Women reported more pain than men at all 11 body sites studied, in data from more than 6 million people in 118 countries, published in Nature Medicine. [22] About 40% of people reported back pain, the most common kind. [22] The most severe pain peaked around age 50, while back, hip and knee pain kept rising with age. [22] The study estimated that smoking, obesity and low household income caused 18.3% of the world's pain. [22]

    Why it matters — The findings arrive amid concern that women are less likely to be prescribed pain relief. [22] The authors counted the pain people reported, not diagnoses, so people who rarely see a doctor are included. [22]

13. 14

    Welsh GPs say slots are too short for cancer checks

    Doctors in Wales say 10-minute GP appointments are too short to check women for cancers of the womb, ovaries and cervix. [23] Dr Amara Naseem says a careful history and an internal examination take about 20 minutes. [23] In a survey for Tenovus, a cancer charity, about half of 100 Welsh GPs called short appointments a major concern. [23] About 470 of the 1,200 women diagnosed with these cancers in Wales each year die of them. [23]

    Why it matters — The Welsh government says it is recruiting up to 100 extra GPs. [23] Naseem says the pressure is to offer more appointments, not better ones. [23]

14. 15

    FDA asks how to test ibogaine

    The FDA asked the public on Monday how early trials of ibogaine, a psychedelic drug, should be designed. [24] US health officials want it studied first in adults with opioid addiction and with PTSD. [24] The FDA's draft plan starts with small groups at doses no higher than 10 mg per kilogram of body weight, with checks on the heart and brain. [24] Comments close on 20 November. [24]

    Why it matters — Michael Davis, the FDA's drug chief, said ibogaine raises serious safety concerns as well as scientific questions. [24] The request follows a Trump order in April to speed research into psychedelic drugs for serious mental illness. [24]

15. 16

    Fat bubbles carry a drug to lung tumours in mice

    Researchers at Oregon State University sent mRNA, a set of instructions cells read to make a protein, to lung tumours in mice inside tiny fat bubbles. [25] The mRNA told cells to make follistatin, a protein that can slow tumour growth and help build muscle. [25] The aim was to treat the cancer and cachexia, a severe muscle wasting that kills up to 30% of the cancer patients it affects, at once. [25] Their bubbles shrank tumours about 2.5 times more than standard ones. [25]

    Why it matters — Standard fat bubbles mostly end up in the liver, which has made mRNA hard to aim at lung tumours. [25] The work is in mice and has not been tested in people. [25]

16. 17

    Why cancer-fighting immune cells tire

    Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York found that a signal molecule called MEK pushes T cells, the immune cells that kill cancer, into exhaustion. [26] Exhausted T cells stop attacking, which is one reason immunotherapy drugs often work and then fade. [26] In animal studies, blocking MEK let the cells last longer while using less energy, the team reported in the journal Immunity. [26] Drugs that block MEK are already approved. [26]

    Why it matters — That could let the idea be tested in people without waiting for a new drug. [26] The researchers warn that blocking MEK also slows the cells' killing, so it may not suit every patient. [26]

17. 18

    A brain inflammation target in human tissue

    University of Birmingham researchers found that blocking a receptor called P2X7 cut inflammation in living human brain tissue taken during surgery. [27] The receptor sits on microglia, the brain's own immune cells, and sets off inflammatory signals. [27] Inflammation is part of traumatic brain injury and of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. [27] The study, in the journal Brain, used drugs that are already in development. [27]

    Why it matters — No approved drug improves recovery after a traumatic brain injury, the authors say. [27] The result comes from tissue in a dish, not from patients. [27]

18. 19

    A Greek molecule restores memory in animals

    A team led by Giorgos Skretas in Greece reported that a molecule called RSQ-020 restored learning and memory in animals with features of Alzheimer's disease. [28] It targets tau, a protein that misfolds and clumps in the disease. [28] The team found it using bacteria built to glow green when a faulty protein returns to its normal shape, while the same bacteria make billions of candidate molecules. [28] The results are in animals only. [28]

    Why it matters — A drug is usually built to fit one fixed protein shape, and misfolded proteins keep changing, which has made them hard to treat. [28] The method was first built for ALS, the disease that kills the nerves controlling muscles. [28]

19. 20

    A test for lab-grown embryo models

    University of Sydney researchers built a reference map of early human embryos from more than 14,000 single cells. [29] They used it to check four common ways of growing blastoids, embryo-like balls of cells made from stem cells. [29] Some reproduced all three main cell types of a real early embryo fairly well, but none matched it fully. [29] Today's blastoids cannot develop into an embryo. [29]

    Why it matters — Blastoids let scientists study the first days of pregnancy without donated human embryos. [29] A shared reference gives labs one way to compare their methods. [29]

20. 21

    How bacteria notice an attacking virus

    University of Utah researchers found how bacteria notice phages, viruses that infect them, in one of their most common defence systems, called CBASS. [30] An enzyme the virus needs cuts a sensor protein in the bacterium, and that cut sets off the alarm. [30] The defence then kills the infected bacterium before the virus spreads to its neighbours. [30] The study was published in Science. [30]

    Why it matters — Phages are being tested as treatments for infections that antibiotics no longer clear. [30] Knowing the trigger could help scientists design phages that get past the defence. [30]

21. 22

    Casgevy reaches more than 500 patients

    Five scientists from Harvard Medical School and the US National Institutes of Health received the 2026 Warren Alpert Foundation prize last week. [31] Their work found BCL11A, a gene that controls the change from baby to adult haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in blood. [31] That led to Casgevy, the first CRISPR gene-editing medicine, approved in December 2023 for sickle cell disease and thalassaemia. [31] Jennifer Doudna said Casgevy is approved in 39 countries and more than 500 patients have begun treatment. [31]

    Why it matters — Casgevy turns the body's baby haemoglobin back on, which protects against sickle cell, instead of fixing the faulty gene. [31] Doudna named cost, harsh treatment before the edit, hospital capacity and access in poorer countries as the barriers left. [31]