Biotech, in brief

Amgen, a US drugmaker, said on Saturday that adding its immune drug Imdelltra to AstraZeneca's immune drug Imfinzi cut the risk of death by 58% in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer. [1][4]

Small cell lung cancer grows fast, and extensive-stage means it has already spread beyond the lung where it began. [4]

The DeLLphi-305 trial had 563 patients whose cancer had not grown after a first round of Imfinzi with chemotherapy. [1]

Half then got Imdelltra with Imfinzi, and half got Imfinzi alone, as maintenance: treatment kept up after the first heavy round. [1][4]

Half the patients on the pair were still alive at 21.1 months, against 12.7 months on Imfinzi alone. [1][2]

After one year, 79% of patients on the pair were alive, against 53% on Imfinzi alone. [2]

Imdelltra grabs a protein called DLL3 on cancer cells and a protein on T cells, the immune cells that kill, and pulls the two together. [4]

Almost half the patients on Imdelltra had cytokine release syndrome, an immune overreaction, though nearly every case was mild or moderate. [1][3]

Serious side effects linked to treatment hit 20.9% of patients on the pair and 10.8% on Imfinzi alone. [1]

Imdelltra is now approved only for patients whose cancer grew during or after platinum chemotherapy, and it sold $627 million in 2025. [4]

The trial compared the pair only with Imfinzi alone, not with other ways of starting treatment. [4]

The results were shown at ESMO, Europe's biggest cancer meeting, in Madrid, and published the same day in the New England Journal of Medicine. [1][3]

Why it matters. The next step is the drug regulators: Amgen says it is sharing the results with them worldwide, and the 21-month figure will change as patients are followed for longer. [1][4]

AstraZeneca showed final-trial results at ESMO for its immune drug Imfinzi, given with Pfizer's drug Padcev before bladder surgery and alone after it. [3] The VOLGA trial was in muscle-invasive bladder cancer, which has grown into the bladder wall. [3] Against surgery alone, the pair cut the risk of death by 42%. [3] After two years, 78% of patients on it were alive, against 69% after surgery alone. [3]

Why it matters. Merck's Keytruda with Padcev, already the standard before surgery, cut the risk of death by 50% in its own trial, so STAT reports that AstraZeneca's pair falls short. [3] The two figures come from separate trials with different patients.

Bayer said adding its pill Nubeqa to hormone treatment and radiation cut the risk of prostate cancer spreading, or death, by 58%. [6] The DASL-HiCaP trial, run by researchers rather than the company, had 1,106 men whose cancer was at high risk of coming back. [6] After four years, 95% on Nubeqa were free of spread, against 88% on a dummy pill. [6] Nubeqa blocks the male hormones that prostate cancer feeds on. [6]

Why it matters. After four years, 97% of men on Nubeqa and 95% on the dummy pill are alive, and the doctors are still following them. [6] The trial's 58% matches the lung trial's figure, but here it stands for 7 more men in 100 free of spread. [6]

Johnson & Johnson said its pill Erleada, given with hormone treatment before and after surgery, cut the risk of prostate cancer returning, or death, by 62% against surgery alone. [7] The trial had 408 men with high-risk cancer that had not spread, followed for a median 37.8 months. [7] After three years, 63% on the drugs had no sign of the cancer returning, against 41.4% after surgery alone. [7]

Why it matters. Serious side effects were more common on the drugs, 31% against 22%, and 64% of men had hot flushes. [7] Erleada is not approved for this use, and nobody yet knows whether the men will live longer. [7]

Georgina Long of the Melanoma Institute Australia presented the trial of intismeran, a vaccine made for each patient by Moderna and Merck, at ESMO on Saturday. [3] Its results had leaked two days earlier: added to Merck's Keytruda, it cut the risk of melanoma, a skin cancer, returning or death by 42%. [3][8] The cut in the risk of the cancer spreading to distant organs, 38%, was smaller than an earlier trial had led people to expect. [8]

Why it matters. Inge Marie Svane of the University of Copenhagen, who reviewed the trial at the meeting, said it is not yet known whether the vaccine helps people live longer. [3] Merck hopes for US approval next year, and the full results appear in a journal next month. [8][3]

Novartis said its pill remibrutinib cut the yearly rate of multiple sclerosis relapses by 35% and 31% in two final trials, against Sanofi's older drug Aubagio. [9] In multiple sclerosis the immune system damages nerves, and a relapse is a flare of symptoms. Analysts at BNP Paribas had expected about 50%, and Reuters puts analysts' hopes at 45% to 60%. [9][11] Roche's rival drug fenebrutinib cut relapses by 51% and 59% in its own trials. [9]

Why it matters. Heinz Wiendl, the neurologist who presented the data, said the rate on remibrutinib works out at about one relapse every 13 years. [10] STAT reports that its safety record is cleaner, which could still help it compete. [10]

Eli Lilly showed early results at ESMO for sofetabart mipitecan, a drug that carries a cell-killing poison to cancer cells bearing a protein called FRa. [12] In 33 women whose ovarian cancer came back at least six months after platinum chemotherapy, given it with the drug bevacizumab, tumours shrank in 79.3%. [12] In 20.7%, scans found no cancer left. [12] Serious drops in white blood cells hit 42.4% of the women. [12]

Why it matters. AbbVie, Genmab and AstraZeneca have rival drugs aimed at the same protein, and Lilly began its final trial a year ago. [12] Patients may grow resistant to the poison most of the new drugs share, so Fierce Biotech says being first to market could matter more. [12]

An experimental drug from Tango Therapeutics, given with Revolution Medicines' approved pill Rasonque, shrank tumours in 82% of patients with one kind of advanced pancreatic cancer, results shown on Friday at ESMO. [13] After nine months, 88% were alive with no tumour growth. [13] The pair uses no chemotherapy, long a standard treatment for this cancer. [13]

Why it matters. STAT says the result backs the idea that pancreatic cancer patients gain more from pairs of targeted drugs than from one. [13] Tango's drug is still experimental. [13]

Dr Reddy's Laboratories, an Indian maker of cheaper copies of drugs, has started selling two new brands of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy, Reuters reported. [14] Supplies of its first brand, Obeda, stopped in July after it found an impurity in the ingredient. [14] The new brands, Obeda Pro and Obeda Plus, are made by another company, Hetero Labs. [14] A recall in Canada cost it 710 million rupees of sales in its latest quarter. [15]

Why it matters. Dr Reddy's launched Obeda in India in March, after semaglutide lost its patent there, and a race among Indian drugmakers followed. [14] It says Obeda returns next month in India and this quarter in Canada. [14]

The MHRA, Britain's medicines regulator, approved Johnson & Johnson's daily pill Icotyde on Friday for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. [16] Plaque psoriasis is a skin condition that causes red, scaly and often itchy or painful patches. [16] The approval covers adults and children aged 12 and over who weigh at least 40kg. [16] It rests on four final trials in 2,500 people, in which the pill beat a dummy pill after 16 weeks. [16]

Why it matters. The US approved Icotyde earlier this year, and J&J, which makes it with Protagonist Therapeutics, expects $5 billion a year in peak sales. [16] It is also being tested in ulcerative colitis, psoriatic arthritis and Crohn's disease. [16]

The CDC, the US national public health agency, reported 178 more measles cases this week, taking the 2026 total to 4,588 as of Friday. [17] That is more than double last year's total, across at least 43 outbreaks. [17] Pennsylvania alone has 1,338 cases, and South Carolina and Utah each have more than 500. [17] The CDC counts three measles deaths nationally, while Pennsylvania reports five and is looking into a sixth. [17]

Why it matters. The measles vaccine prevents 97% of cases, and one in five unvaccinated people who catch measles ends up in hospital. [17] The US health department also proposed this week to let doctors bill for reporting suspected vaccine injuries. [17]

Ali Pate, Nigeria's health minister, said the country's only confirmed Ebola case appears genetically related to a strain found earlier in Kenya. [18] He said there is no evidence yet that the Kenyan patient went to Nigeria, and more tests are under way. [18] Both patients are believed to have passed through Entebbe airport in Uganda this month. [18] Uganda said on Friday that people who have been to DR Congo can no longer change planes there. [18]

Why it matters. The outbreak began in DR Congo in May and has more than 9,500 cases there and over 4,000 deaths across Africa. [18] It is caused by the Bundibugyo kind of Ebola, which has no approved vaccine or treatment. [18]

A 52-day-old boy died of mpox early on Saturday at a Karachi hospital, the first baby to die of it in the Pakistani city, Dawn reported. [19] Dawn's sources say he caught it during a circumcision at a hospital in Malir that officials have since sealed. [19] Mpox is a virus that causes a rash and spreads through close contact and shared objects. [19] His death takes Sindh province to 12 mpox deaths and 98 cases this year. [19]

Why it matters. Nearly all who died were babies infected in clinics without proper infection control, Dawn's sources said. [19] Another baby treated at the same Malir hospital is in critical condition. [19]

Lenacapavir, a jab given every six months that nearly stopped new HIV infections in two big trials, is often unavailable in Mbarara, a city in western Uganda, africanews reported. [20] Uganda has rationed a few thousand doses across the country, so many people get a two-monthly jab, cabotegravir, instead. [20] Mbarara's HIV rate is 10%, double the national average. [20] The founder of a local HIV group says funding cuts ended outreach that used to test people. [20]

Why it matters. The Global Fund, which pays for HIV drugs in poorer countries, says 430,000 doses had been delivered by mid-September. [20] Gilead, which makes lenacapavir, says it supplies it at no profit while licensed makers of cheaper copies scale up. [20]

AstraZeneca will spend about $50 million over the next few years on roughly 30 clinical trials in Abu Dhabi, with Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a hospital there. [21] The trials will study heart, kidney and metabolic diseases, and the first should start before the end of this year. [21] Heart disease causes 34% of deaths in the UAE, its health ministry says. [21] AstraZeneca also announced a project with Oracle to use AI and health records to find high blood pressure earlier. [21]

Why it matters. Iskra Reic of AstraZeneca said the UAE suits such work because its medical records are well connected and it holds Emirati genetic data. [21] She said more patients there could join global trials. [21]

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London tested a small device that sends gentle electrical pulses into nerves in the ear, in 63 people whose blood pressure stayed high despite medicine. [22] Half used the real device and half a fake one, at home, for 12 weeks. [22] Across everyone, blood pressure fell no more with the real device than with the fake. [22] In people with more severe high blood pressure, a group chosen before the trial began, it fell more. [22]

Why it matters. The device was safe and most people used it as told, but the trial was small. [22] The team says larger trials must show whether it works, and for whom. [22]

Boehringer Ingelheim, a German drugmaker, showed early results at ESMO for obrixtamig, which, like Imdelltra, links immune cells to the DLL3 protein on cancer cells. [5] In neuroendocrine cancers outside the lung, given with platinum chemotherapy as a first treatment, tumours were held back for a median 7.7 months. [5] This year Boehringer began two final trials: one in people starting treatment for small cell lung cancer, and one in these rarer cancers. [5]

Why it matters. Boehringer's lung trial pairs obrixtamig with Roche's immune drug Tecentriq at the start of treatment, the stage where Amgen has now shown a survival gain. [5][1]

China's exports of malaria drugs to 12 of the African countries worst hit by the disease reached $89.3 million last year, a new study found. [23] India's reached $89.6 million, so the two are now almost level, according to Sol Gravitas, an Indian market research firm. [23] In 2021, India sold $121 million of these drugs to the same countries and China $62.6 million. [23] Malaria is a disease spread by mosquito bites, and most of its cases are in Africa.

Why it matters. Indian drugmakers have long been the main suppliers of malaria medicines in these countries, and Chinese firms closed almost all of the gap in four years. [23] The figures cover only these 12 countries and come from one research firm. [23]