Welcome to the Weekly Rundown where the DDN editors cover this week’s top biotech and pharma news.
More people are living longer after a cancer diagnosis
According to new data from the American Cancer Society (ACS), more people are surviving cancer than ever before, with the five-year survival rate across all cancers reaching 70 percent — up from just 50 percent in 1971. However, while overall mortality continues to decline, the report found that incidence rates for some of the most common cancers — including breast, endometrial, prostate, and pancreatic cancers — are rising. In 2026 alone, the ACS projects that 5,800 people will be diagnosed with cancer each day in the US, totaling more than two million new cases, and over 620,000 deaths. The data also highlight persistent disparities in outcomes in Native American and Black communities, which face higher rates of both cancer diagnosis and mortality, driven by a combination of differences in access to care and biological factors. – Bree Foster
New blood tests aim to simplify Alzheimer’s diagnosis in China
BGI Genomics and Roche Diagnostics have launched new blood-based tests for Alzheimer’s disease in China, aiming to broaden access to simpler tools for diagnosing and monitoring the neurodegenerative condition. BGI said its blood test is now being used by clinicians as an auxiliary assessment tool in cities including Guangzhou, Qingdao, Shenzhen, and Wuhan to help evaluate disease progression and the risk of onset, while Roche is working with Chinese regulators to make its pTau181 test — designed to measure a key Alzheimer’s-associated protein — available to patients in Boao where it has already entered clinical use at a local hospital. The blood tests could accelerate diagnosis and improve access to recently approved treatments such as Biogen and Eisai’s Leqembi and Eli Lilly’s Kisunla, offering a less invasive and more affordable alternative to spinal taps or PET brain scans. Both firms cautioned that the tests are not standalone diagnostic tools, but clinicians say they could play an important role in early screening and reducing the need for unnecessary, invasive follow-up procedures. – Bree Foster
AbbVie to expand US investment, lower Medicaid prices under Trump deal
AbbVie announced it has entered into a voluntary, three-year agreement with the Trump administration to expand drug access and affordability in the US while increasing domestic pharmaceutical investment. As part of the deal, AbbVie will provide lower prices for Medicaid programs, expand direct-to-patient access through the TrumpRx initiative for several widely used medicines, and commit $100 billion over the next decade to US-based research, development, and manufacturing. In return, the company will receive exemptions from tariffs and future pricing mandates, aligning the agreement with the administration’s drug pricing priorities, though AbbVie said additional terms remain confidential. – Andrea Corona
Researchers demonstrate first AI-designed DNA circuits in human cells
Scientists at Rice University have demonstrated the first successful use of AI to design complex genetic circuits in human cells, a breakthrough that could accelerate the development of cell-based therapies. Reporting in Nature, the team unveiled a high-throughput platform called CLASSIC that allows hundreds of thousands to millions of multi-kilobase DNA circuit designs to be built and tested simultaneously, generating the large, high-quality datasets needed to train machine learning models. By combining long- and short-read DNA sequencing, the researchers linked each circuit’s full genetic sequence to its functional output in human cells, enabling AI models to accurately predict the behaviour of previously untested designs. The approach revealed that multiple genetic solutions can achieve the same cellular function and that moderately tuned components often outperform extreme ones, offering new design rules for synthetic biology. Researchers say the ability to pair large-scale experimental data with AI-driven prediction marks a shift toward data-driven genetic engineering, with potential applications ranging from programmable cell therapies to advanced tissue engineering. – Bree Foster
Researchers uncover how bacteria effectively colonize upstream
The innate ability of bacteria to swim upstream against fluid currents, called positive rheotaxis, contributes to respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary tract infections (UTIs), as well as the contamination of dental and medical equipment. “But how these microorganisms ‘go against the grain’ through these confined, maze-like environments has remained a mystery,” said Arnold Mathijssen, a biophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania, in a press release. In a study published in Cell Newton, Mathijssen and his team used nanoscale multichannel tubes to simulate and visualize bacterial invasion and colonization upstream. They found that wider channels with faster counterflows were more prone to invasion, and that the strong current acted like a guide rail for the bacteria to reach upstream locations faster. The team also found that smooth, rounded corners — which most resemble surfaces in the human body — were the easiest for the bacteria to navigate and colonize, whereas sharp corners disrupted the bacteria’s motion and invasion. Additionally, they found that the bacteria did not colonize along the way from downstream to upstream. Instead, the bacteria travelled all the way upstream to form streamer-like bioaggregates that drifted downstream to colonize the full length of the tubes, which resulted in three times faster colonization. Taken together, this could have clinical implications for UTIs, where bacteria detected in the lower tract may signal a much larger problem upstream. Moreover, this could be used to improve the design of medical equipment to slow down bacterial motility. – Melissa Kay
Boston Scientific to acquire Penumbra for $14.5B
Boston Scientific announced it has agreed to acquire Penumbra in a cash-and-stock transaction valuing Penumbra at approximately $14.5 billion, or $374 per share, as the medtech company moves to expand its cardiovascular portfolio and gain scaled entry into mechanical thrombectomy and neurovascular markets. Under the terms of the deal, Penumbra shareholders may elect to receive cash or Boston Scientific stock, with the total consideration split roughly 73 percent cash and 27 percent stock; Boston Scientific expects to finance the cash portion with a combination of existing cash and new debt. Penumbra’s portfolio includes mechanical thrombectomy systems for treating conditions such as pulmonary embolism, stroke and deep vein thrombosis, as well as neurovascular access and embolization technologies — areas Boston Scientific identified as strategic adjacencies amid rising global rates of vascular disease. The transaction, which has been approved by both boards, is expected to close in 2026 pending shareholder approval and customary regulatory conditions, and is projected to be modestly dilutive to Boston Scientific’s adjusted earnings in the first year following completion. – Andrea Corona
