The failure of Alector Inc.’s phase III study of latozinemab in treating dementia halved the company’s stock on Oct. 22. That is also about the same percentage of staff that Alector is letting go after the clinical trial stumble.

John Squires, the recently anointed director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, has determined that a machine learning (ML) patent application met the standard for patent subject matter eligibility, an outcome that seems to bode well for ML-based patent applications going forward.

While positive results from the investigator-led phase II CHOPIN trial at ESMO 2025 failed to get investors dancing, they were no doubt music to management’s ears, particularly with Delcath Systems Inc.’s third quarter earnings report missing a beat.

In the largest med-tech M&A deal in nearly three years, Hologic Inc. agreed to be acquired by funds led by Blackstone and TPG in a transaction valued at $18.3 billion. After five months of rumored negotiations, the outlined deal provides Hologic shareholders with $76 per share in cash plus up to $3 per share in contingent value rights (CVR) to be paid on achievement of revenue goals for the breast health business over the next two years.

San Diego-based Dexcom Inc., is the target of a class action lawsuit in U.S. district court over the company’s G7 continuous glucose monitors, an action which follows a U.S. FDA warning letter by a mere seven months and a recall announced in July, suggesting that litigation often follows other sources of bad news for firms in the med-tech business.

The Trump administration’s consideration of a new round of tariffs has prompted two major med-tech trade association to advise the White House to leave medical consumables and medical devices out of any new tariffs, citing concerns about the impact on patient care.

Sweeping “radical” changes in both the U.S. FDA and China’s drug development landscape are keeping the global life science industry on its toes in assessing what’s temporary and what’s not, speakers said at the Bioplus Interphex (BIX) Korea 2025 conference in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 15.

Neuphoria Therapeutics Inc.’s phase III study of social anxiety disorder has missed its primary and secondary endpoints, prompting the company to stop the program’s development and hold a full strategic review of its operations and portfolio. It’s the second stumble for lead candidate BNC-210, a negative allosteric modulator of alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, in the indication.

Dianthus Therapeutics Inc. has joined the recent trend of companies licensing therapies in development from China. The company will pay as much as $1 billion to Nanjing Leads Biolabs Co. Ltd. for DNTH-212, a bifunctional BDCA2 and BAFF/APRIL inhibitor to treat autoimmune disorders. The payment comprises $30 million up front and some near-term milestones, plus an $8 million milestone for getting a phase I study underway. Leads Biolabs is in line to bring in another $962 million in milestones and royalties.