The liver and pancreas are the main actors in glucose metabolism, but not the only ones. Muscles, adipose tissue and the brain play different roles. However, the prize for the best new actor in glucagon production goes to the innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), which, according to a study published in Science, respond to intestine neuron signals traveling to the pancreas to control glucose.

A U.S. Federal Claims Court judge shot down Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s accusations that the FDA disclosed the company’s trade secrets to generic competitors, finding that the trade secrets weren’t really secret or necessarily proprietary to Vanda.

In December 2024 BioWorld recorded 212 clinical trial updates, an increase from 180 in November and closely aligning with 219 in October. The month saw 16 successful phase III outcomes, along with two mixed results and two trial failures. Eli Lilly and Co. reported that its FDA-approved weight-loss drug Zepbound (tirzepatide) outperformed Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy (semaglutide) in the phase IIIb Surmount-5 trial.

As investors look ahead to data shortly from Veru Inc. with enobosarm, the weight-loss space remains hot, with Novo Nordisk A/S reporting favorable top-line results from a phase Ib/IIa trial evaluating amycretin, a unimolecular GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist for once weekly subcutaneous administration in people overweight or with obesity.

Newco Linkgevity Ltd. has won backing from the KQ Labs accelerator program at the Francis Crick Institute in London, enabling it to take forward the lead program, an anti-necrotic drug for treating acute kidney injury, and to further develop its AI-driven system for identifying aging-related therapeutic targets.