The front page of AI-driven biology
Thursday, October 15, 2026Thu, Oct 15
Updated 9:01 PM PT
Clinical readouts, approvals, and setbacks, financing, dealmaking, platform progress, and reported research across biotech and biopharma, including the companies building AI into biology.
Eli Lilly reported that its dual-drug combination eloraTZP delivered 23.3% average weight loss at 48 weeks in a trial of 367 adults with both type 2 diabetes and obesity or overweight.
Merck announced that its antibody tulisokibart met the primary and secondary endpoints in a 149-patient Phase 2b trial for moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa, an inflammatory skin condition.
Primary endpoint Phase 2 data published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology showed Zealand Pharma and Roche's amylin analog, petrelintide, produced 9.8% mean weight loss at Week 28 on a 5 mg dose compared to 1.7% on placebo.
Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and the Broad Institute identified the BACH2-NRF2 pathway as an independent regulator of fetal hemoglobin expression, according to a study published in Nature.
Lux Capital and Natural Capital co-led a $251 million Series D round for Varda Space Industries, with participation from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst.
The FDA has accepted Roche's regulatory application to review fenebrutinib, an oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, across two major forms of multiple sclerosis.
The European Commission revoked its marketing authorization for Hansoh Pharma's Aumseqa (aumolertinib), an oral third-generation EGFR inhibitor for non-small cell lung cancer, after a legal challenge by AstraZeneca.
Pierre Fabre Laboratories has resubmitted its biologics license application for Ebvallo, an allogeneic T-cell therapy targeting a complication of Epstein-Barr virus infections that the FDA rejected twice over manufacturing problems.
GSK will pay Wave Life Sciences $12 million upfront to take ownership of a liver-targeted small interfering RNA (siRNA) candidate emerging from their 2022 research partnership.
In a 159-patient Phase 2 trial, the company's experimental antibody rademikibart cut new moderate-to-severe lung attacks by 85% and reduced overall treatment failure by 81% over 28 days compared to placebo.
In a 72-patient Phase 2 trial in discoid lupus, the low dose of the monoclonal antibody daxdilimab delivered a 6-point reduction against placebo on the skin-severity index at Week 24, while a higher dose achieved a 5.7-point reduction.
Eli Lilly presented full results from the 1,152-patient Triumph-2 Phase 3 trial testing retatrutide, an injectable triple agonist targeting GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon receptors, in adults with obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Researchers at Anthropic deployed roughly 950 Claude agents to mine genomic databases, identifying an unusual family of array-associated reverse transcriptases found in giant bacterial viruses.
Highlight Therapeutics reported that its intralesional double-stranded RNA nanoparticle, BO-112, achieved a 61% combined visual and pathological response rate at week 24 in a 46-patient Phase 2b trial for localized basal cell carcinoma.
Baylor College of Medicine researchers paired unbiased high-throughput proteomics with a computational pipeline named GluePlex to discover and optimize small-molecule degraders of VAV1, an immune signaling protein involved in autoimmune disorders and blood cancers.
Patients with type 2 diabetes who escalated semaglutide to 2 mg had a 6% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events than those who switched to Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, according to a retrospective study announced by Novo Nordisk.
Beam filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts accusing former scientist Zi Jun Wang of copying proprietary base editing records to co-found Shanghai-based YolTech Therapeutics.
AbbVie, argenx, Lundbeck, and Takeda have joined Ginkgo Bioworks and Apheris to assemble a standardized dataset of 10,000 antibodies aimed at training predictive AI models for drug manufacturing and formulation.
Updated 48-month data from 12 patients in a Phase 1/2 trial of the gene therapy AMT-130 showed a 44% slowing of disease progression on the composite Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale, down from 75% at three years and missing statistical significance against an external control.
Former Genentech artificial intelligence leaders, including New York University professor Kyunghyun Cho, have launched the health startup Ortet backed by a $500 million commitment from Matt Holt's investment firm Thoreau.
Novo Nordisk agreed to pay $300 million upfront to license HRS-1596, a once-weekly pill that activates GLP-1 and GIP metabolic receptors, from China's Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals.
AstraZeneca and HUTCHMED have submitted a supplemental new drug application to the US FDA for savolitinib, sold as Orpathys, in combination with osimertinib, sold as Tagrisso.
Adicet Bio reported early clinical data for prula-cel, an allogeneic, donor-derived gamma delta CAR-T cell therapy, demonstrating efficacy competitive with autologous benchmarks in patients with lupus.
Mirum Pharmaceuticals reported that subcutaneous brelovitug, an antibody targeting hepatitis surface antigen, achieved composite response rates of 56% for weekly 300 mg doses and 45% for monthly 900 mg doses, against 0% in a 24-week delayed-treatment control arm.
Roche has discontinued development of emugrobart and returned the antibody to its Japanese subsidiary Chugai after a Phase 2 trial interim analysis showed it was unlikely to meet its endpoints.
Merck & Co. acquired worldwide rights to SPR2015, an experimental small molecule targeting the cancer mutation KRAS G12D from Shanghai-based SciBrunch, paying $400 million upfront in an agreement whose potential milestones bring the ceiling to $2.13 billion, reported by some outlets as $2.1 billion.
UPMC Enterprises and Ziff Capital Partners co-led the $48 million launch round for ai3Bio, formed by combining autoimmune assets from Corner Therapeutics with University of Pittsburgh spinout Novasenta.
Researchers using an artificial-intelligence tool called AI-MARRVEL identified variants in the BRSK1 gene as the cause of an undiagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder across 10 patients from seven unrelated families.
Merck has stopped supplying Recarbrio, an intravenous antibiotic combination used for severe hospital-acquired pneumonia, complicated urinary tract infections, and resistant intra-abdominal infections in patients with few other options.
The FDA has approved Roche's anti-CD20 antibody Gazyva (obinutuzumab) for idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, a serious kidney disorder characterized by excessive protein loss in urine.