One in five patients achieve functional hepatitis B cure after 24 weeks of bepirovirsen
medicalxpress - In an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, University of Michigan Health hepatologist Anna S. Lok, M.D., hails newly announced results of the B-Well clinical trials as "a major step toward a functional cure for hepatitis B virus inf…
AI Summary: An antisense therapy, bepirovirsen, produced functional cures in roughly one in five patients after 24 weeks, driving cautious optimism for a finite treatment for chronic hepatitis B. The study demonstrated significant viral declines and serologic changes in a subset, prompting larger trials to confirm durability, safety, and which patients actually benefit.
CVS sues to challenge new Tennessee PBM-pharmacy breakup law
Rebecca Pifer Parduhn / healthcaredive - The law, which would prohibit PBM conglomerates from owning or operating pharmacies, illegally boots out-of-state companies from Tennessee’s pharmacy market, CVS argued in suit filed Friday.
AI Summary: CVS Health has filed suit challenging Tennessee's new law that bars pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies, arguing the measure unlawfully disrupts established business models and harms patient access. The company seeks to block enforcement while the legal fight plays out, setting up a clash between state regulators and a major healthcare middleman.
Stem cells have potent potential for diabetes treatment
medicalxpress - Humans have around 30 trillion cells in our adult bodies. Amazingly, each of these cells came from a handful of about 100 stem cells in the earliest days of development. The ability of these embryonic stem cells to turn into any cell type makes them pluri…
AI Summary: Researchers report stem cell–based approaches can replenish insulin‑producing cells and restore glycemic control in diabetes models, offering a potential path beyond daily insulin injections. Early findings suggest significant therapeutic promise, but scientists stress that safety, durability, and immune‑rejection hurdles must be cleared before these techniques graduate from experimental hope to standard care.
Biogen, Denali to drop drug in non-genetic Parkinson’s after mid-stage study flop
Ayisha Sharma / endpoints - Biogen and Denali Therapeutics’ LRRK2 inhibitor has flunked a Phase 2b trial in early Parkinson’s disease, leading the companies to drop the program in certain patients. The small-molecule drug, known as BIIB122, missed the study’s ...
AI Summary: After disappointing mid‑stage results, developers have stopped advancement of a candidate Parkinson’s therapy for non‑genetic forms of the disease. The setback underscores the challenges of translating promising mechanisms into clinical benefit and will force sponsors to reassess pipelines and patient selection strategies.
FDA grants Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s Datroway a key breast cancer approval
Lei Lei Wu / endpoints - The FDA has approved the TROP2-directed antibody-drug conjugate Datroway as a first-line option for triple-negative breast cancer, giving Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca a leg up over their competitor Gilead. The approval marks Datroway’s third, after ...
AI Summary: Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s breast cancer therapy Datroway has cleared key regulatory hurdles, winning FDA approval and earning backing from European regulators. The approvals validate pivotal trial results and pave the way for clinical adoption in the indicated patient population, prompting clinicians to prepare for integration into treatment pathways and health systems to weigh formulary and access decisions.
- Clinicians weigh Datroway’s role in TNBC care (3)
- FDA win and market stakes for Datroway (3)
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Clinicians weigh Datroway’s role in TNBC care
FDA win and market stakes for Datroway
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BioMarin's rare disease therapy shows no clinical benefit in Phase 3 test
Reynald Castaneda / endpoints - BioMarin’s enzyme replacement therapy for a rare genetic disorder called ENPP1 deficiency delivered mixed results in a late-stage study. Patients with the condition don't produce enough of the ENPP1 enzyme, which generates plasma inorganic pyrophosphate .…
AI Summary: BioMarin reported a Phase 3 trial that failed to show clinical benefit for a rare‑disease therapy, undermining prior optimism and clouding the drug’s development pathway. The mixed late‑stage results force a strategic reassessment, cooling investor expectations and leaving researchers and patients waiting for next steps or alternative approaches.
Eli Lilly’s Triple Combo Obesity Drug Tops 28% Weight Loss in a Pivotal Trial
Frank Vinluan / medcitynews - Eli Lilly’s retatrutide set a high mark in weight loss for obesity drugs, but with clinical trial results that show some new side effects. More detailed data from the Phase 3 study are scheduled for presentation next month during the American Diabetes Ass…
AI Summary: Eli Lilly’s triple‑agonist produced average weight loss exceeding 28% in a pivotal study, positioning the drug as a leader among late‑stage obesity candidates. The results close the gap with surgical outcomes and promise major clinical and commercial impact—assuming regulators are satisfied and long‑term safety and durability data hold up.
- GLP-1 drugs closing gap with bariatric surgery (3)
- GLP-1 mechanisms and potential cancer benefits (3)
- Lilly’s retatrutide trial: 28% weight loss and implications (4)
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GLP-1 drugs closing gap with bariatric surgery
GLP-1 mechanisms and potential cancer benefits
Lilly’s retatrutide trial: 28% weight loss and implications
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GHO Capital, CBC Group to merge, forming what could be the largest healthcare specialist investor
Reynald Castaneda / endpoints - European healthcare investor GHO Capital and asset management firm CBC Group are set to join forces, with the new entity to manage over $21 billion. In a Wednesday release, they said ...
AI Summary: GHO Capital and CBC Group have agreed to combine their healthcare investment platforms to create roughly a $21 billion specialist investor focused on health assets. The tie-up consolidates capital and deal teams to chase larger transactions across care delivery, pharma and tech—because apparently healthcare needed a bigger private-equity behemoth.
Common asthma drug helps fight hard-to-treat cancers, including aggressive breast cancers, early study finds
livescience - Scientists found that blocking a protein best known for its role in asthma enhances cancer immunotherapy in preclinical models.
AI Summary: Early studies report that a widely used asthma medication can switch off a tumor immune‑evasion pathway and restore anti‑tumor immunity in models and early human data, improving responses in some hard‑to‑treat cancers including aggressive breast tumours. Researchers call for larger trials to confirm clinical benefit and safety.
- Asthma drug revives anti‑tumor immunity in resistant cancers (5)
- Mechanisms and meetings on immunotherapy resistance (5)
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Asthma drug revives anti‑tumor immunity in resistant cancers
Mechanisms and meetings on immunotherapy resistance
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FDA Approves AstraZeneca Drug With New Approach to Lowering High Blood Pressure
Frank Vinluan / medcitynews - AstraZeneca’s Baxfendy is the first FDA-approved drug in a new class of medicines called aldosterone synthase inhibitors. The new mechanism of action is important for patients and for AstraZeneca, which has been looking for new drugs with blockbuster pote…
AI Summary: The FDA has approved a first-in-class oral agent that uses a novel mechanism to lower resistant hypertension, offering an alternative for patients who haven’t responded to standard therapies. The move expands treatment options and signals renewed industry focus on innovative vascular targets — finally something for stubborn blood pressure to complain about.
Adding Retifanlimab To Chemotherapy Provides OS Benefit over Chemotherapy In First-Line Treatment of Patients with Advanced Squamous Anal Cancer
esmo - Findings from the final overall survival analysis in the POD1UM-303/InterAACT-2 study
AI Summary: A randomized first‑line trial found that adding retifanlimab to standard chemotherapy meaningfully improved overall survival for patients with advanced squamous anal cancer, signaling a new immunotherapy-containing option where few exist. The data from the POD1UM‑303/InterAACT‑2 program offer clinicians a viable strategy to extend life without reinventing the wheel.
Overactive MYC helps tumors fix DNA breaks and resist chemotherapy, study finds
medicalxpress - A protein best known for driving cancer growth also helps damaged tumor cells survive by repairing their DNA, according to a new study that could influence how some cancers are treated.
AI Summary: New research reveals overactive MYC drives tumor cells to repair DNA breaks more efficiently, enabling resistance to chemotherapy. By illuminating the repair pathways MYC hijacks, the study identifies potential targets to reverse resistance and improve treatment responses — because apparently cancers read the manual on how to survive your best shot.
- MYC hijacks DNA repair to enable chemo resistance (4)
- Other molecular drivers of chemoresistance and genome instability (3)
- Tumor cell death and immunity shape chemotherapy outcomes (3)
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MYC hijacks DNA repair to enable chemo resistance
Other molecular drivers of chemoresistance and genome instability
Tumor cell death and immunity shape chemotherapy outcomes
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Data-Driven Decision Support in Obesity Management Commission: enabling more equitable and personalized obesity care
Paul W. Franks / nature - Nature Medicine, Published online: 12 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04363-0Announced in this Comment and in collaboration with Nature Medicine is the convening of the Data-Driven Decision Support in Obesity Management Commission, to promote adequate sc…
AI Summary: A phase 1/2 study of CRISPR‑Cas9 CD33‑deleted allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation followed by gemtuzumab ozogamicin maintenance reports encouraging early signals in AML. The gene‑editing approach aims to protect donor cells from CD33‑targeted therapy, potentially enabling safer post‑transplant maintenance and offering a novel strategy to marry cellular engineering with targeted antibody therapy.
- CD33‑targeted transplant and post‑transplant maintenance (4)
- Safety and ethical scrutiny of gene editing and gene therapy (3)
- Scaling cell therapy: accreditation and expanding CAR indications (3)
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CD33‑targeted transplant and post‑transplant maintenance
Safety and ethical scrutiny of gene editing and gene therapy
Scaling cell therapy: accreditation and expanding CAR indications
All Other Stories
Omid Veiseh: First-in-Human Clinical Trial of IL-2 Cytokine Factories in Refractory Ovarian Cancer
oncodaily - Omid Veiseh, Professor and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research at Rice University and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of RBL LLC, shared a post on LinkedIn: “Excited to publish the results […]
AI Summary: A first‑in‑human trial of implantable IL‑2 “cytokine factories” in refractory ovarian cancer reported encouraging early safety and biological activity, offering a localized immune‑stimulation strategy that may boost tumor responses while avoiding systemic toxicity. Investigators described the device‑based platform as a potential option for patients with limited alternatives, pending larger efficacy studies.
Antiviral ensitrelvir cuts risk of COVID-19 in household contacts by two-thirds, study finds
medicalxpress - The antiviral drug ensitrelvir prevents infection in household contacts of COVID-19 patients when given within 72 hours after symptom onset in the index patient, according to a Phase III randomized controlled trial published in the New England Journal of …
AI Summary: A randomized trial shows the oral antiviral ensitrelvir, used as post‑exposure prophylaxis, reduced the risk of symptomatic COVID‑19 in household contacts by roughly two‑thirds. The finding suggests a practical option for preventing spread after close exposure, offering public‑health teams a less dramatic but highly useful tool than lockdowns.
BeOne’s next-gen BCL2 inhibitor wins FDA approval, taking aim at Venclexta
Ayisha Sharma / endpoints - BeOne Medicines has clinched US accelerated approval for its drug sonrotoclax in a rare but aggressive form of blood cancer, where AbbVie and Genentech’s Venclexta is used off-label. The FDA greenlit ...
AI Summary: BeOne Medicines secured FDA approval for a next-generation BCL2 inhibitor, positioning the drug as a direct challenge to AbbVie/Roche’s Venclexta franchise. The move reshuffles competitive dynamics in hematology, potentially offering clinicians an alternative and setting the stage for market share battles and payer negotiations. Expect aggressive positioning and head-to-head data requests.
Positive VOLGA Phase III Results for Imfinzi Plus Neoadjuvant EV in MIBC
oncodaily - On May 14, 2026, AstraZeneca announced positive high-level results from a planned interim analysis of the Phase III VOLGA trial, evaluating perioperative Imfinzi with or without Imjudo in combination with […]
AI Summary: Phase III VOLGA trial results reveal that combining durvalumab (Imfinzi) with neoadjuvant enfortumab vedotin improved survival outcomes in muscle‑invasive bladder cancer. Investigators and industry voices highlight potential practice-changing implications for perioperative therapy, while stakeholders weigh regulatory filings and integration into treatment guidelines. Clinicians will want full datasets and toxicity details.
- Clinician reactions, biology and resistance concerns (4)
- Global GU oncology meetings and community coverage (3)
- VOLGA Phase III readout and regulatory landscape (3)
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Clinician reactions, biology and resistance concerns
Global GU oncology meetings and community coverage
VOLGA Phase III readout and regulatory landscape
All Other Stories
Favipiravir for Lassa fever: an open-label, randomized controlled phase 2 trial
Cyril Erameh / nature - Nature Medicine, Published online: 15 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04402-wAn open-label, randomized controlled phase 2 trial comparing favipiravir with ribavirin for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Lassa fever in Nigeria found that favipiravir was s…
AI Summary: An open-label, randomized Phase 2 trial of favipiravir for Lassa fever reported encouraging results, suggesting antiviral benefit where few options exist. The study offers early clinical proof-of-concept, especially important for endemic West African settings, and calls for larger trials to confirm efficacy, optimize dosing, and assess deployment logistics.
Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill by mail
Sydney Halleman / healthcaredive - The ruling maintains access to mifepristone while litigation continues. The drug can still be prescribed at pharmacies or by mail without requiring in-person visits.
AI Summary: The Supreme Court intervened to maintain access to mifepristone, temporarily restoring telehealth prescribing and preserving mail distribution while litigation proceeds. The decision keeps the pill available nationwide, blocking lower-court restrictions that would have sharply limited remote access and complicated routine clinical care for patients and providers.
Bristol Myers Squibb and Hengrui Forge $15.2 Billion Strategic Alliance, Reshaping China-Out Licensing Landscape
oncodaily - Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and Jiangsu Hengrui Pharma (600276.SH; 01276.HK) on Tuesday unveiled one of the largest cross-border biopharma collaborations of the year: a global strategic alliance encompassing 13 […]
AI Summary: Bristol Myers Squibb and Hengrui Pharma announced a sweeping strategic alliance covering multiple oncology assets, with potential payments and milestones that could reach roughly $15.2 billion. The deal bundles discovery, development and commercialization rights, reshaping China‑out‑licensing dynamics and signaling continued consolidation and collaboration in global cancer drug development.