Welcome to the Weekly Rundown where the DDN editors cover this week’s top biotech and pharma news.
Fake authorship in scientific publishing is more common than previously known
A new investigation submitted to the arXiv preprint platform, and reported by Science Magazine, identified nearly 19,000 online advertisements from businesses selling authorship slots on scholarly papers, with a first-author position averaging $1,030. Led by Reese Richardson, a reproducibility researcher at Northwestern University, the study traced ads to businesses in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, India, and elsewhere, nearly all promising placement in journals indexed by Web of Science or Scopus. A related investigation by co-author Anna Abalkina of the Free University of Berlin previously linked roughly 1,000 such ads to more than 400 published papers, of which only 70 have been retracted. A separate BMJ study found that nearly 10 percent of 2.6 million cancer research papers published between 2019 and 2024 show similarities to known paper mill output. For drug developers who rely on published preclinical literature to inform target selection and pipeline decisions, the scale of the problem is worth paying attention to. – Andrea Corona
FDA aims to speed review with real-time clinical trials
On Tuesday, the FDA announced plans to launch real-time clinical trials, whereby companies will report results and safety data to the agency in real time. Two pharma companies, AstraZeneca and Amgen, will be the first to participate in the initiative by reporting their real-time results on the Phase 2 TRAVERSE trial in patients with treatment-naïve mantle cell lymphoma (AstraZeneca) and the Phase 1b STREAM-SCLC trial in patients with limited-stage small cell lung carcinoma (Amgen). “For 60 years, we've been conducting clinical trials in the same way, where key data signals can take years to reach the FDA. The lag time can delay regulatory decisions unnecessarily and slow down the drug development timeline,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in the press release. As part of the announcement, the FDA also rolled out a Request for Information from the public asking for input on a possible pilot program to evaluate how AI could be used to enhance decision-making in early phase clinical trials. – Allison Whitten
Eleven cancers on the rise in young people
Eleven types of cancer are increasing among younger adults in England, according to a large analysis from researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research and Imperial College London. The study found rising incidence of bowel, thyroid, liver, kidney, pancreatic, breast, and ovarian cancers among adults aged 20–49, with only bowel and ovarian cancers increasing exclusively in younger people while the rest rose in both younger and older populations. To explore possible drivers, researchers examined long-term trends in established behavioural risk factors, including smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, physical activity and obesity, finding that most had either improved or remained stable over the study period. The exception was body weight, with obesity steadily increasing since the 1990s and emerging as the only factor that broadly aligned with cancer trends, although it only partially explained the rise — for example, excess weight was estimated to account for about 20 percent of additional bowel cancer cases in younger adults. Researchers said this left the majority of the increases unexplained and pointed to the need to investigate other possible contributors such as environmental exposures, gut microbiome changes, antibiotic use, and ultra-processed foods, as well as the potential role of improved detection and diagnosis. – Bree Foster
Chiesi will acquire KalVista in $1.9B deal
In a new bid to further increase its presence in the rare disease space, Chiesi inked a deal to buy KalVista and its lead asset, Ekterly, which was approved by the FDA last year as the first oral pill to treat the swelling condition hereditary angioedema. The transaction marks Chiesi’s largest deal to date, as the company will acquire all outstanding shares of KalVista at a rate of $27 per share in cash. “This acquisition supports our strategy to accelerate impact in rare diseases by bringing together science, innovation and expertise to address areas of highest unmet need. KalVista’s proven drug discovery and development capabilities, combined with our global footprint and operational excellence, will enable us to deliver innovation to patients at greater scale,” said Chiesi’s interim Group CEO Jean-Marc Bellemin in the news release. – Allison Whitten
Veradermics oral minoxidil shows rapid hair regrowth in late trial
Veradermics has announced that its oral hair-loss drug VDPHL01 delivered rapid and statistically significant hair regrowth in a large Phase 2/3 trial, positioning the therapy as a potential first FDA-approved non-hormonal oral treatment for pattern hair loss in nearly three decades. The randomized, placebo-controlled study involved 519 men with mild-to-moderate male pattern hair loss, taking once-daily and twice-daily doses of the extended-release minoxidil formulation. The study met all primary and key secondary endpoints, producing mean increases of 30.3 and 33 non-vellus hairs in once daily and twice daily, respectively, per square centimeter at six months, compared with 7.3 hairs for placebo. Nearly 80 percent of patients in the once-daily arm and 86 percent in the twice-daily arm reported improvement in hair coverage after six months, with statistically significant gains evident as early as two months. The company said the drug was generally well tolerated, with adverse-event rates similar to placebo and no treatment-related serious or cardiac safety events. Veradermics plans to advance the program through additional late-stage trials in men and women, with further topline data expected in the second half of 2026. – Bree Foster
Lilly's acquisition spree continues with a $2.3 billion bet on a next-generation blood cancer drug
Eli Lilly announced this week that it will acquire Ajax Therapeutics for up to $2.3 billion in cash, its fifth acquisition since the start of the year and third oncology deal in three weeks. At the center of the deal is AJ1-11095, a once-daily oral first-in-class type 2 Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) inhibitor currently in Phase 1 development for myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera, two rare blood cancers caused by the bone marrow overproducing blood cells. The mechanistic distinction here matters: All currently approved JAK2 inhibitors, including Incyte's Jakafi, bind the active, or type 1, conformation of JAK2. Ajax's drug binds the inactive, type 2 conformation instead, a design choice intended to deliver deeper, more durable responses and to remain active in patients who have developed resistance to existing therapies. Ajax was founded on research by Ross Levine, Chief Scientific Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and built its platform in collaboration with computational drug design company Schrödinger. Proof-of-concept clinical data from the Phase 1 trial are expected later in 2026, meaning Lilly is buying ahead of that readout — a calculated gamble that underscores just how aggressively the company is deploying its obesity and diabetes drug revenues into pipeline expansion. – Andrea Corona
