Welcome back to your monthly news roundup, where we look back at the biggest stories to hit the pharma headlines. It’s time to reflect on October 2026
It was good news this month for US drugmaker Regeneron who’s new experimental myostatin drug reduced the loss of muscle mass by 50% when administered alongside GLP-1 semaglutide, compared to semaglutide alone.
The exciting trial results were a promising boost for an industry increasingly concerned about the significant loss of muscle mass that often accompanies rapid weight loss in patients taking GLP-1 inhibitors.
Regeneron is not the only drugmaker to have had success with myostatin inhibitors this month, however. Scholar Rock’s apitegromab also showed promising results when combined with Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug tirzepatide.
In a small trial, participants receiving the combination lost about 55% less lean mass than those taking tirzepatide alone, although no clear improvement in physical function was seen.
Further trials for this emerging class of drugs from leader Regeneron are due to start in the near future while Scholar Rock and Biohaven already have ones in the works.
Moderna was left on the back foot when an early data leak of a key phase 3 trial for an mRNA vaccine for melanoma sent share prices plummeting.
Shares for the company fell as much as 26% after the results of the INTerpath-001 trial were published online by a news organisation two days before they were due to be revealed exclusively at Europe’s largest oncology congress, ESMO.
Although the groundbreaking trial met its primary endpoint, reducing the risk of recurrence or death in patients with high-risk melanoma by 42% compared to an immune checkpoint inhibitor alone, the results fell short of the 49% reduction reported in an earlier phase 2 trial.
Moderna, who developed the vaccine in tandem with Merck, soon saw a bounce back in share price and continue to push forward with phase 2 and phase 3 trials of the therapy, intismeran, in a range of other cancers.
The coveted Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 was awarded to the trio behind the pioneering new field of optogenetics – a technique that uses light to control specific cells that has transformed how researchers study the brain.
Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel and Karl Deisseroth’s discovery, which can switch nerve cells on and off, has opened to door to a whole new era of research which is helping to identify potential targets for new medicines.
Although much of the research remains in the lab, companies including Ray Therapeutics and Restore Vision are working on treatments using optogenetics to restore sight by making surviving retinal cells sensitive to light.
GenSight, who join the cohort of companies working on a potential approach for people with severe retinal degeneration, have since reported encouraging visual responses in an early-stage trial.
First Tracks Biotherapeutics set out a small win for the more than 1% of the global population who live with coeliac after its experimental treatment for the disease, ANB033, massively reduced symptoms and gluten-related gut damage in a small trial of 32 people. Just 6% of treated patients needed symptom-relief medication compared with 47% on placebo.
Larger studies are needed to confirm its safety and benefits, with further results expected in early 2027 but it’s a step in the right direction for an area of research that has been slow to say the least.
Featured image: EMJ
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