Cancer researchers are increasingly turning to the microbiome to understand why some patients respond well to treatment while others face severe complications. Gut microbial communities shift during intensive therapies such as bone marrow transplantation, and those changes influence infection risk, immune recovery and long‑term survival. New advances in microbial sequencing and engineering redefine this community as a measurable clinical parameter that can be monitored, modeled, and even therapeutically reshaped to improve outcomes in oncology and other conditions.
Rani Therapeutics Holding Inc. has entered into a research and development collaboration with Pegbio Co. Ltd. to explore the delivery of multiple candidates from Pegbio’s obesity and metabolic disease pipeline using Rani’s proprietary Ranipill platform.
Apertura Gene Therapy has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has announced the teams for the THRIVE (Treating Hereditary Rare diseases with In Vivo prEcision genetic medicines) program. With a commitment of up to $160 million over 5 years, THRIVE aims to accelerate solutions for rare genetic pediatric diseases across multiple technological approaches, clinical trial designs and deployment models.
Cancer researchers are increasingly turning to the microbiome to understand why some patients respond well to treatment while others face severe complications. Gut microbial communities shift during intensive therapies such as bone marrow transplantation, and those changes influence infection risk, immune recovery and long‑term survival. New advances in microbial sequencing and engineering redefine this community as a measurable clinical parameter that can be monitored, modeled, and even therapeutically reshaped to improve outcomes in oncology and other conditions.
Representing the fourth largest biopharma M&A announced in 2026, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. offered $85 per share in cash, or about $10 billion, to buy endocrine specialist Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc., adding the acromegaly drug Palsonify and a phase III asset, atumelnant, for congenital adrenocorticotropic hyperplasia (CAH).
Vera Therapeutics Inc. looks to get an almost five-month head start over a competitor, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., as the U.S. FDA cleared its Trutakna (atacicept) as the first dual BAFF/APRIL inhibitor for treating immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). The accelerated approval, which came on the July 7 PDUFA date, indicates Trutakna for use in reducing proteinuria in adults with primary IgAN at risk for disease progression. The drug is administered once weekly via auto-injector.
China Pharmaceutical University has patented new isochromanone compounds acting as proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin-type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors. As such, they are described as potentially useful for the treatment of atherosclerosis, obesity, hepatic steatosis, hypercholesterolemia, hyperlipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia.
In a recent study, researchers from Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine and collaborators aimed to identify novel insulinotropic small molecules related to ion channel modulation.
Mira Pharmaceuticals Inc. has reported results from preclinical studies evaluating an optimized oral formulation of SKNY-1, an oral drug candidate being developed for obesity and addiction-related disorders.
RSS
