Adding Genmab and AbbVie's Epkinly to chemotherapy cut the chance of lymphoma growing or death by 51% in 900 newly diagnosed patients

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

   Ebola reaches Kenya for the first time

   Kenya reported its first-ever Ebola death on Tuesday: a Kenyan man who had lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo for seven years. [4] He fell ill about a month ago, travelled by road to Kampala in Uganda, and flew to Nairobi on 3 October. [4][5] Officials have listed 28 of his contacts, and so far only his own test is positive. [5] They are still tracing 23 passengers and four crew from his flight. [4] The outbreak in Congo, declared in May, had killed 4,082 of 8,463 confirmed cases by 2 October. [5]

   • Died4,082 · 48%
   • Other confirmed cases4,381 · 52%

   Why it matters — The strain, called Bundibugyo, has no vaccine and no specific treatment, so stopping it depends on finding contacts fast. [4] Medecins Sans Frontieres, a medical charity, says cases are surging in North Kivu province. [4] In its Butembo area, about 2 million people share four Ebola treatment centres. [4]

2. 03

   ArriVent's lung cancer pill fails its big trial

   ArriVent BioPharma, a US company, said on Tuesday that its pill firmonertinib failed the main goal of a final-stage trial in lung cancer. [6] The 398 patients had a change in a gene called EGFR, known as an exon 20 insertion, and got the pill or chemotherapy as their first treatment. [6] Independent reviewers found that half the patients' cancers had grown by 11 months on the higher dose, against 9.5 months on chemotherapy. [6] That gap was too small to count. [7] The shares fell 57% in early trading and closed down nearly 47%. [6][8]

   Pill, higher dose11 months

   Chemotherapy9.5 months

   Pill, lower dose8.4 months

   Why it matters — A win would have given these patients a first treatment without chemotherapy; Johnson & Johnson's approved drug Rybrevant is still given with it. [6] The pill was first made by Shanghai Allist, which sells it in China, and analysts said the failure shows the risks Chinese drug companies face when selling abroad. [8][7]

3. 04

   GE HealthCare buys a maker of scan tracers

   GE HealthCare, a US maker of medical scanners, agreed on Monday to buy Sofie Biosciences for $945 million in cash. [9] Sofie makes radioactive drugs for PET scans, which show how active cells are inside the body. [9] Many of these use fluorine-18, which loses half its radioactivity every 110 minutes. [9] So they must be made close to the hospital and rushed there, and Sofie has 15 such sites across the US. [9] The deal should close in the first half of 2027. [9]

   Why it matters — GE HealthCare will own the factories as well as the scanners, plus US rights to FAPI-74, a tracer in development for finding many kinds of cancer. [9] Sofie will keep making tracers for rival companies too. [9]

4. 05

   McKesson and CD&R buy Option Care

   McKesson, a large US medicine distributor, and Clayton Dubilier & Rice, a private investment firm, agreed to buy Option Care Health. [12] Option Care provides infusion services, giving patients medicines through a drip. [10] The Financial Times first reported the talks on Monday and valued the deal at more than $5 billion including debt, Reuters said. [10] Option Care's shares jumped more than 20% before markets opened on Tuesday. [11] Under the agreement, CD&R will own about 51% and McKesson about 49%. [12]

   Why it matters — McKesson has been buying health services companies, including Precision Medicine Group for about $2.25 billion in August. [10] Reuters said the deal is part of McKesson's push to grow in health care services. [10]

5. 06

   Forbion raises 2.3 billion euros for young biotechs

   Forbion, a Dutch investor in young biotech companies, said on Tuesday it raised 2.3 billion euros, about $2.6 billion, across two funds. [13][14] It is the firm's largest fundraise, more than it planned, and can back about 30 companies. [14] Backers include the Dutch pension managers MN and PGGM, Germany's KfW Capital and the drugmaker Eli Lilly. [14] Forbion is Europe's largest venture fund that invests only in medicine and biology, and it raised 2 billion euros in 2024. [14][13]

   Why it matters — Money is scarce for young companies: Adecto, a Boston cancer start-up, closed after 12 years last week because investors would not back a new target without results in patients. [15] European biotech leaders warned last month that trials and research are moving to China and the US. [14]

6. 07

   Weight-loss drugs slow ageing clocks, makers say

   Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, makers of the weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, said patients on them aged more slowly by the measure of ageing clocks. [16] These clocks estimate a body's age from chemical marks on DNA or from levels of key proteins in the blood. [16] Novo tested blood from 10,052 people, half on its drug and half on a dummy, and found a biological age about two to three years lower. [16] Lilly's smaller study used DNA clocks. [16] Both shared the results at a longevity conference in Boston. [16]

   Why it matters — Steve Horvath, who invented the clocks, called two years a strong effect. [16] A Harvard biologist who worked with Novo said nobody knows if the drugs slow ageing in healthy people, and a $38 million US government-funded study in Texas will test that in healthy people over 60. [16]

7. 08

   Fake medicines spread in central Africa

   A report on Tuesday from the UN drugs office, the WHO and CEMAC, a group of six central African countries, warned of a trade in fake and smuggled medicines that threatens public health. [17] At least 251 tonnes were seized in the six countries between 2020 and 2025, including antibiotics, malaria drugs and painkillers. [17] Traffickers divert real drugs from national health stocks and sell fakes and unapproved products. [17] Some end up in official clinics that patients trust. [17]

   Why it matters — The WHO estimated in 2017 that fake or poor malaria drugs could be linked to 72,000 to 267,000 deaths a year in sub-Saharan Africa. [17] The report says the trade grows where real medicine is missing or costs too much. [17]

8. 09

   Finger clips drifted from too high to too low

   Pulse oximeters are finger clips that shine light through the skin to estimate how much oxygen the blood carries. [18] A study of five years of records at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US compared them with blood taken from an artery, the most accurate test. [18] At higher oxygen levels the clips went from reading too high to reading too low, in all patients. [18] The errors were worse in patients of colour. [18] Masimo, which made the clips, said it knows of no change that would explain it. [18]

   Why it matters — A reading that is too high can leave a sick patient untreated, and one that is too low can mean needless care and longer stays. [18] Doctors can allow for an error that stays the same, but not for one that changes direction. [18]

9. 10

   Three biotechs line up to sell shares

   TRex Bio, a California company backed by Eli Lilly, aims to raise about $111 million by selling shares to the public for the first time, a filing on Monday showed. [19] It plans to spend $90 million on trials of a drug for eczema and other immune diseases. [19] Retension Pharmaceuticals, from Virginia, hopes to raise $33.8 million for a blood pressure pill. [19] Lycia Therapeutics also filed to list, for drugs that remove an allergy antibody from the blood. [19]

   Why it matters — 2026 has been a busy year for these share sales, including ADARx's $446 million in late September. [19] TRex's first results in eczema are not due until mid-2027, so buyers would be paying for a drug not yet shown to work. [19]

10. 11

    Fast US review for a dwarfism pill

    BridgeBio, a US drugmaker, said the FDA, the US drug regulator, gave priority review to its pill infigratinib for children with achondroplasia. [20] Achondroplasia is a common form of dwarfism. [20] A decision is due by 4 February 2027. [20]

    Why it matters — The drug is taken by mouth, and the FDA's ruling is due within about four months. [20]

11. 12

    Nuvig stops a trial of its only tested drug

    Nuvig Therapeutics, a California biotech backed by drugmakers including Bristol Myers Squibb, Sanofi and Bayer, has stopped one of two trials of NVG-2089, its only drug tested in people. [21] That trial was in CIDP, a rare disease in which the immune system strips the coating from nerves, causing tingling and weak arms and legs. [21] It had signed up 14 patients since April 2025. [21] The chief executive said cost and slow enrolment were the reasons, not safety. [21] A second trial, in a blood-clotting disorder, goes on. [21]

    Why it matters — Patients with CIDP already have approved options, such as argenx's Vyvgart Hytrulo and Takeda's HyQvia, both cleared in 2024. [21] The rest of Nuvig's drugs have not yet reached people. [21]

12. 13

    Kairos moves a prostate cancer drug earlier

    Kairos Pharma, a small US company, is changing its mid-stage trial of ENV-105 in prostate cancer that has spread. [22] At an early look, half the patients' cancers had grown by 17.7 months on ENV-105 plus apalutamide, a hormone-blocking drug, against two months on apalutamide alone. [22] Kairos did not say how many patients that covered; the trial aims for 116. [22] It will now sign up men earlier, once their PSA, a blood marker of prostate cancer, rises after their first hormone drug. [22]

    Why it matters — Kairos had $2.6 million in cash in June and warned it might not last 12 months. [22] The new design is meant to find more patients and fill the trial faster. [22]

13. 14

    Guides help new mothers keep seeing doctors

    A study at Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago followed 405 low-income pregnant women between 2020 and 2024. [23] Some were given a patient navigator, a trained guide who books appointments and arranges transport and childcare. [23] With a navigator, 96% came to check-ups after the birth, against 80% with usual care. [23] A year on, 57% had seen a family doctor, against 30%. [23] The Northwestern Medicine study appeared in JAMA Health Forum on 2 October. [23]

    Check-ups, with a guide96%

    Check-ups, usual care80%

    Family doctor at 1 year, with a guide57%

    Family doctor at 1 year, usual care30%

    Why it matters — Problems in pregnancy such as diabetes and dangerously high blood pressure can affect a mother's health years later, so staying in care matters. [23] Medicaid, the US health plan for people on low incomes, already pays for navigators in cancer care. [23]

14. 15

    Bowel cancer in young people is found late

    Doctors reviewed the records of 84 people aged 21 or younger who were found to have bowel cancer between 2012 and 2023. [24] Only 20% had a close relative with the disease. [24] Most of the cancers had already reached stage III or IV, meaning they had spread, when they were found. [24] More than a third came back, and nearly half of the patients died. [24] The study was presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics conference, which ended on 6 October. [24]

    Why it matters — Warning signs such as weight loss and bleeding from the bottom can be overlooked because the disease is so rare at that age, the authors say. [24] They also say cancer in young people behaves differently from the same cancer in older adults. [24]

15. 16

    Ten NHS trusts reported over patient filming

    NHS England has reported 10 mental health trusts to the CQC, England's health care regulator, over how they asked patients' consent to camera monitoring. [25] The cameras, including a system called Oxevision, sit in bedrooms and track breathing and pulse. [25] The issue came out at the Lampard Inquiry, which is examining more than 2,000 deaths of people who spent time in Essex mental health units. [25] NHS England said it first heard safety concerns about Oxevision in 2021, and wrote to the regulator on 2 October. [25]

    Why it matters — The trusts were not named, and lawyers for bereaved families asked why NHS England took years to act. [25] The CQC was due to give evidence on 7 October. [25]

16. 17

    A processed meal raised insulin more

    Researchers gave 32 healthy-weight young adults two meals on separate days, one ultra-processed and one not, matched for calories, carbohydrate, fat, fibre and salt. [26] Ultra-processed foods are factory-made, with added ingredients not used in home cooking. [26] After the processed meal, insulin, the hormone that moves sugar out of the blood, rose more, and the body burned more energy. [26] Brain scans of 52 people linked the difference to a brain area involved in reward. [26] The study is in Nature Metabolism. [26]

    Why it matters — It offers one possible reason, measured in a small study, why processed food may lead people to eat more even when its labels match home-cooked food. [26]

17. 18

    A fairer test for AI cell models

    AI virtual cell models try to predict how a cell changes when one of its genes is switched on or off. [27] Earlier tests found they often did no better than simple guesses. [27] Researchers at Shift Bioscience, a UK company, built a prediction known to be good and used it to test the scoring methods themselves. [27] Across 14 sets of data and 18 scores, the common scores often could not tell a good prediction from a poor one. [27] With better scores, several models beat the simple guesses. [27]

    Why it matters — If the models work, drug researchers could test gene targets on a computer before the lab. [27] Shift, whose paper is in Nature Biotechnology, says it is using the method to look for drugs against scarring diseases. [27]

18. 19

    An mRNA maker raises $47 million

    Sensible Biotechnologies said it raised $47 million, including up to $20 million from the government of Slovakia and the European Union that does not cost the owners any shares. [28] Sensible makes mRNA, the instructions that tell cells to build a protein, inside living engineered cells. [28] Most mRNA is made by a chemical method developed more than 40 years ago. [28] The company says its way produces mRNA that sets off less unwanted immune reaction and needs fewer special raw materials. [28]

    Why it matters — Its chief executive said cheaper mRNA could open up medicines that need large or repeated doses, which cost has held back. [28] The money will also go on building the ability to make mRNA to the standard needed for medicines. [28]

19. 20

    US hospitals sell longevity check-ups

    Some of the best-known US hospitals, including Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, now run longevity clinics that patients pay for themselves, at thousands of dollars. [29][30] The clinics promise to track many health signs and advise on how to live longer and healthier. [29] A STAT reporter tried clinics in two states, with tests of her heart, brain, lungs, eyes, ears, strength and fitness. [30] One was a VO2 max test, which measures how well the body uses oxygen. [30]

    Why it matters — Critics ask how high cash fees fit hospitals that are run as charities. [30] They also warn that some of the tests have not been shown to improve anyone's health. [30]

20. 21

    Three cataract cases after weight-loss drugs

    UK eye doctors described three patients whose cataracts, a clouding of the eye's lens, worsened quickly and unevenly after they started GLP-1 drugs, the family that includes Ozempic. [31] The report, in the journal Eye, is a case series: a description of a few patients, with no comparison group. [31] The authors say research has not shown that the drugs cause cataracts. [31] They wrote it up because the pattern raised the question. [31]

    Why it matters — The drugs have already been linked to rare damage to the nerve at the back of the eye and to worse diabetic eye disease, the authors note. [31] The drugs were made for diabetes and are now widely used for weight loss. [31]

21. 22

    A weak spot in drug-resistant myeloma cells

    Myeloma is a blood cancer often treated with drugs such as lenalidomide, but in most patients it stops responding over time. [32] Researchers made myeloma cells resistant to three such drugs in the lab. [32] Drugs that block SETD2, an enzyme that tags the proteins DNA is wrapped around, slowed the resistant cells more than the normal ones. [32] One of these blockers, EZM0414, has already entered testing in people. [32] The work, in Blood Cancer Journal, was done only in cells grown in dishes. [32]

    Why it matters — Newly diagnosed patients in a large US database whose cancer had high SETD2 levels did worse, which supports the idea. [32] Nobody has yet tested it on cancer cells taken from patients. [32]