Nanyang Biologics Pte. Ltd. has entered a $1.5 billion business combination agreement with RF Acquisition Corp II, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company. Singapore-based Nanyang Biologics (NYB) is building a hybrid platform to revolutionize drug discovery by combining machine learning with natural compound libraries, and NYB claims it is developing one of the world’s largest AI-curated collections of bioactive compounds.

The U.S. FDA has approved the priority sNDA for a new first-line maintenance therapy in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer from Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc. Zepzelca (lurbinectedin) can now be combined with Tecentriq (atezolizumab, Roche AG) or atezolizumab and hyaluronidase-tqjs (Tecentriq Hybreza, Roche) as a maintenance therapy for adults who haven’t progressed after first-line induction therapy with atezolizumab, carboplatin and etoposide.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is exiting all work in cell therapies and will seek an external partner to advance the company’s research and clinic-ready cell therapy programs, the company said, noting that it is not currently running any clinical trials using cell therapy technology.

The BioWorld Cancer Index closed the third quarter (Q3) of 2025 with a 24.15% gain, marking its highest level of the year. The climb reversed earlier declines, including a 12.81% drop at the end of Q1, and half-year performance of 2.21%. Broader markets showed a similar rebound, with the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index up 13.21% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 9.06%, both finishing Q3 at their highest points of 2025.

Full-Life Technologies Ltd. announced Sept. 29 the completion of a $77 million financing, comprising $50 million in series C equity and $27 million in debt financing, which will be used to advance a portfolio of radiopharmaceuticals and radionuclide-drug conjugates worldwide.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Health Hope Pharma Ltd. may be getting a second wind for encequidar and the Orascovery platform, with Gilead Sciences Inc. picking up exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize encequidar in the field of virology for $2.5 million up front.

Genmab A/S is paying $8 billion to acquire Merus NV, gaining rights to the latter’s phase III-stage petosemtamab, a bispecific antibody initially in development for head and neck cancer, and continuing the firm’s strategy to transition from a royalty-based operation to a fully integrated biopharma.

Eli Lilly and Co.’s oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) imlunestrant has been approved by the U.S. FDA for treating late-stage breast cancer patients. Branded Inluriyo, the second-line treatment is for treating adults with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative estrogen receptor 1-mutant advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Rakuten Medical Inc. is advancing a pipeline of solid tumor therapeutics built on its Alluminox platform worldwide, having gained conditional early approval of ASP-1929, an Alluminox-derived photoimmunotherapy, in Japan in 2020.

Nailing down what Oppenheimer analyst Jay Olson characterized as “a trifecta,” Immuneering Corp. unveiled positive updated survival and safety data from the ongoing phase IIa trial testing oral, once-daily MEK inhibitor atebimetinib (IMM-1-104) in combination with modified gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxe in first-line pancreatic cancer patients.