Biotech, in brief

Genmab, a Danish biotech company, and AbbVie, a large US drugmaker, said on Monday that their drug Epkinly worked in a final-stage trial in newly diagnosed lymphoma. [1]

The cancer is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or DLBCL. It is the most common form of lymphoma, a cancer of white blood cells called B cells. [1]

The trial gave 900 people at intermediate or high risk of death R-CHOP, a widely used mix of chemotherapy drugs. Each also got either Epkinly or a dummy drug. [1]

Adding Epkinly cut the chance of the cancer growing or the patient dying by 51%, compared with chemotherapy alone. [1] Investors had expected about 40%. [1]

Epkinly is a bispecific antibody, a protein with two arms. One arm holds the cancerous B cell and the other holds a T cell, a killer cell of the immune system, which then attacks. [1]

It was first approved in the US in 2023, on early evidence, for lymphoma that had come back after two other treatments. [1] The new result could win it a full approval for newly diagnosed patients, the first for a drug of its kind. [1]

Drugs like it can set off strong immune side effects. Patients are sometimes kept in hospital to be watched, which has kept much of their use inside large academic hospitals. [1]

Genmab's shares rose about 8% in Europe on Tuesday, to a three-year high. [2][3] Its US-listed shares had jumped as much as 14% on Monday. [1]

Epkinly sold $312 million in the first half of this year. [1] One analyst at TD Cowen, a bank, expects $3 billion a year if it becomes the standard first treatment. [1]

The companies have not yet published the full results. They will discuss them with regulators and present them at a medical meeting. [1]

Epkinly's result beat what Polivy, a rival drug from Roche, showed in its own trial. [1] Results from two different trials are not a head-to-head test, so the comparison can mislead. [1]

Why it matters. The next test is the full data at a medical meeting, which will show how many people in each group had their cancer grow or died, and then whether regulators clear Epkinly as a first treatment. [1]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]