👋 Hey, let’s get into it. If the Backrooms sequel needs a filming location, Boston’s biotech landlords would probably love to take the call.

Greater Boston’s lab vacancy hit 28.9% in the third quarter, according to CBRE. Asking rents fell 8.1% from a year earlier, but smaller venture-backed tenants still haven’t returned. The boom delivered the buildings. Now there are plenty of empty halls to wander while searching for your lucky pipette you left behind.

Check out biotech Reddit’s theories on why there’s so much empty lab space in Boston. Just scroll on down to the Community Vibes section of the newsletter.

📊 Bristol Myers Delivers Three Phase 3 Readouts in Under a Week
Bristol Myers squeezed three Phase 3 readouts into less than a week. Its Zenbexus combination extended median progression-free survival to 42 versus 20 months with the comparison regimen in relapsed or refractory myeloma. Radiotherapy RYZ101 also improved that endpoint in gastrointestinal and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors after lutetium-177 treatment, although detailed results remain undisclosed. In idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, admilparant’s lower dose met the lung-function endpoint, but the higher dose didn’t reach significance. Two cancer advances and a lung-disease win with a dose-sized asterisk. Not a bad week at the office.

🤑 Isomorphic Labs Reportedly Eyes a $40B+ Valuation
Alphabet-backed Isomorphic Labs is reportedly in early funding talks at a valuation of at least $40 billion, potentially reaching $50 billion, according to Bloomberg. The AI drug-discovery company, spun out of DeepMind and led by Demis Hassabis, already raised $2.1 billion in May. Now it’s discussing another round, with a potential price tag that shows just how high expectations for AI drug discovery have climbed. The talks are still early, but having Alphabet in your corner probably doesn’t hurt when the conversation turns to how many zeros belong on the paperwork.

💰 Viatris Makes $1.65B Non-Opioid Pain Bet With Pacira Deal
Viatris agreed to acquire Pacira BioSciences for $36.50 per share in cash, valuing its equity at approximately $1.65 billion. The deal would expand Viatris’ non-opioid pain portfolio with Exparel for postsurgical pain and Zilretta for osteoarthritis knee pain, plus commercial and development capabilities. It’s a push into innovative medicines with products already generating sales, rather than an early-stage pipeline waiting for its first clinical win. Closing is expected by year-end.

🏭 GSK Plans an $800M+ Pennsylvania Expansion
GSK plans to invest more than $800 million in its Upper Merion, Pennsylvania site, creating a biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing hub. The project includes commercial-scale biologics production, an R&D pilot plant, and centralized quality control and manufacturing science facilities. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with more than 300 new jobs over five years. Having process development and manufacturing at the same site could help streamline the handoff from R&D to commercial production. Turns out, pharma pipelines sometimes need actual pipes too, and Pennsylvania is getting another expensive set.

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✅ Genentech Wins FDA Approval for Postoperative Colon Cancer
The FDA approved Genentech’s Tecentriq with chemotherapy after surgery for stage III mismatch repair-deficient colon cancer, targeting tumors with faulty DNA repair machinery.

🤝 Theramex Signs Cervical Precancer Deal With $250M+ Potential Value
Theramex licensed regional rights to Asieris’ Cevira, a nonsurgical drug-and-light treatment for cervical precancerous lesions, with a conditional $15 million upfront payment.

🎗️ Pfizer Nabs FDA Approval for Breast Cancer Maintenance
The FDA approved Pfizer’s Tukysa with trastuzumab and pertuzumab as maintenance after induction treatment for adults with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.

🤝 Ono Pharma Commits $80M Upfront for Biohaven’s IgG Degraders
Ono licensed selected Asian rights to Biohaven’s investigational antibody-degrading programs for $80 million upfront, led by BHV-1300 in Phase 3 for autoimmune Graves’ disease.

📉 Argenx Shares Fall 15% After Phase 3 Sjögren’s Trial Halt
Argenx shares fell after it halted Vyvgart’s Phase 3 Sjögren’s trial for futility, indicating the primary endpoint was unlikely to be met.

💉 FDA Approves Teva’s Monthly Schizophrenia Injection
Teva’s Weltruza gained FDA approval for adult schizophrenia, delivering olanzapine through monthly injections under the skin without required post-injection observation, according to Teva.

🤖 GSK Adds Chai’s AI Drug Discovery Models After Lab Testing
GSK expanded its Chai collaboration after laboratory testing found AI-designed molecules bound its targets, supporting adoption in its drug discovery work.

🙌 Mirum’s Liver Disease Drug Meets Phase 3 Goal
Mirum’s Livmarli reduced itching in Phase 3 EXPAND for ultra-rare liver diseases. The company plans an FDA filing in the first half of 2027.

A standing ovation and FDA approval are usually pretty good reasons to celebrate. But Revolution Medicines is learning that Wall Street can still find something to squint at in the paperwork. Newly public FDA review documents have investors looking more closely at its pancreatic-cancer drug, Rasonque.

Remember daraxonrasib, the drug whose survival results earned a standing ovation at ASCO earlier this year? That’s Rasonque. Its pivotal trial reported median overall survival of 13.2 versus 6.7 months with chemotherapy, helping secure August’s approval for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The fine print adds a more complicated picture. Rasonque targets RAS signaling, which cancers use to drive growth, but its tumor-response rates differed across versions of the KRAS gene. In G12D, the trial’s most common subtype, confirmed responses occurred in 24% of patients versus 10% with chemotherapy. In G12V, those figures were 50% versus 15%.

That difference raised a commercial question: could a drug designed specifically for G12D eventually compete more effectively in that group? RevMed is already pursuing that approach with its own G12D-directed candidate, zoldonrasib.

Here’s the distinction worth keeping in focus: tumor response measures shrinkage, not how long patients live. Exploratory survival analyses favored Rasonque in both groups. The smaller G12R group had weaker response results, while its survival estimate remained too uncertain to establish a benefit. These analyses offer clues about differences between mutations, rather than proving which group benefits most.

The tables give competitors something to investigate and investors something to debate, but they don’t erase the overall survival result that got the room on its feet.

This is the amount TRexBio expects in gross proceeds from its IPO, priced at $14 per share. The company develops medicines informed by regulatory T cells, which help keep immune responses in check. Closing is expected October 13. I’m rooting for them, mainly because of the name. 🦖 But if TRexBio reaches a billion-dollar valuation, does the dinosaur become…a unicorn? 🦄

Here’s what biotech Redditors are talking about:

🤖 Latest Biotech Job: Debunking Your Coworkers’ AI Slop
Redditors complained about coworkers arriving at meetings armed with AI-generated notes and questions, then having little understanding of what they’re actually asking. Someone still has to check the assumptions, explain the biology, and untangle the confident nonsense. The notes are polished, but the understanding is still buffering. The chatbot saved them ten minutes, now you’re booked until Thursday.

🏢 Boston’s Empty Labs Have Biotech Redditors Talking
About those empty Boston labs…One commenter argued that biotech’s dependence on venture capital leaves it exposed when investors chase AI instead. Others added high interest rates and disruption to NIH funding, pointing out that weakening academic research also hurts the industry’s future pipeline. Their concern goes beyond finding tenants: who funds the next generation of companies that would fill these buildings? Turns out, “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to biotech.

🤖 Google’s Medical Chatbot Meets Real Patients
Google’s AMIE chatbot was tested before 98 completed medical visits. The physician-supervised chats had no safety stops, one hallucination, and five cases requiring clarification.

🐭 A DNA Typewriter Traces 1.28 Million Mouse Cells
Researchers used inherited DNA recordings to reconstruct the ancestry of 1.28 million sampled mouse-embryo cells, linking their developmental family tree to cell identity.

🎁 Pharma Gifts Linked to Prescribing Changes…Shocker
A 93-study Cochrane review linked gifts and payments to less appropriate prescribing and higher costs. I guess pharma wasn’t buying lunch for the conversation. Who would have thought?

🎾 Matchpoint Raises $150M for Oral Autoimmune Medicines
Matchpoint Therapeutics raised a $150 million Series B to advance oral medicines for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The Watertown, Massachusetts, startup uses covalent chemistry, forming lasting bonds with target proteins, to pursue targets that conventional small molecules have struggled to address. Its lead candidate, MPT-062, is designed to modulate T cells involved in immune disease, with clinical development expected to begin in 2027. Nextech Invest and Norwest co-led the round, which supports the lead program toward clinical proof of concept. Matchpoint has its next serve funded.

🔬 October 13, 1976: Ebola Gets Its Defining Close-Up
Fifty years ago today, CDC scientist Frederick Murphy captured an iconic transmission electron micrograph of Ebola, revealing the virus’s long, filamentous shape. The image emerged during the investigation of the outbreak in what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Murphy, Karl Johnson, and Patricia Webb carried the printed negative straight to CDC Director David Sencer while it was still wet. Today, a result that urgent would travel by email. This one didn’t even wait for the photograph to dry.

With all that empty lab space in Boston, maybe it’s time to start listing luxury apartments.

You can cook dinner over a Bunsen burner, rinse off in the safety shower, and enjoy your very own eyewash station. An often overlooked amenity that most luxury apartments don’t even offer.

The listing calls it “bio chic.” The only catch? The lease requires closed-toe shoes.

That’s all for today. See you Thursday for the next issue. 👋

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