Daily briefings
Editor’s Briefing: September 30, 2026
In Short. Overnight, Lilly detailed phase 3 results for a once-weekly triple-hormone obesity shot that cut weight by about a fifth at the top dose in people who also have type 2 diabetes, Roche and Zealand said a mid-dose amylin weight-loss shot beat higher doses as late-stage trials start, Amgen posted numbers behind a skin-lupus antibody win, and UniQure’s Huntington’s gene therapy still slowed disease at four years but less than a year ago as shares fell hard.
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Lilly’s triple agonist posts diabetes obesity data
Gut hormones help control appetite and blood sugar. Retatrutide is a once-weekly shot that activates three of those pathways at once: GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon. At the European diabetes meeting in Milan, and in The Lancet, Lilly reported TRIUMPH-2 in adults with type 2 diabetes plus obesity or overweight. Over 80 weeks, people on 4 mg, 9 mg, and 12 mg lost an average of 12.7%, 19.1%, and 20.8% of body weight. At the top dose, nearly three in five no longer met the body-mass cutoff for obesity, and average blood sugar (A1C) fell about 1.5 percentage points. Lilly plans a U.S. biologics filing in the first quarter of 2027. (Lilly)
Zealand and Roche’s amylin shot peaks at mid-dose
Amylin is another gut hormone that signals fullness; petrelintide is a long-acting amylin analog Roche licensed from Zealand Pharma. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology published the Week-28 primary analysis from phase 2 ZUPREME-1: mean weight loss peaked at 9.8% on the 5 mg mid-dose, with 7.9% on the lowest doses and 9.3% to 9.4% on the higher ones, against 1.7% on placebo. Weight kept falling through Week 42, to as much as about 10.7%. Nausea was more common than on placebo; vomiting and diarrhea were not. Three phase 3 monotherapy trials are scheduled to start today. (Fierce Biotech)
Amgen fills in a discoid-lupus antibody win
Discoid lupus scars the skin with mostly painless sores, distinct from whole-body systemic lupus. Amgen’s daxdilimab, an antibody from the Horizon buy that depletes rare interferon-making immune cells, already had a topline phase 2 win; a dermatology abstract now gives the scores. In 72 patients, the lower dose cut the CLASI-A skin-activity score by about 6 points versus placebo at Week 24 (higher dose about 5.7). Roughly 62% on either dose achieved at least a 50% CLASI-A drop, versus about 24% on placebo. It previously failed in systemic lupus. (Fierce Biotech)
UniQure’s Huntington’s gene therapy at four years
Huntington’s disease is an inherited brain disorder that slowly erodes movement, thinking, and daily function as a toxic protein builds up. UniQure’s AMT-130 is a one-time gene therapy meant to gum up that protein’s production. On Tuesday, 12 high-dose patients at four years showed a 44% slowing on a combined cognition-motor-living score versus an updated external natural-history database (not statistically significant), and a 61% slowing on a daily-function scale. A year-ago three-year look had looked stronger. Shares fell about 40%. The three-year cut remains the anchor for the accelerated-approval filing submitted this month. (BioPharma Dive; BioSpace)
What to watch
pdufa.bio still lists Merck/Daiichi ifinatamab deruxtecan for October 10 (stale after Monday’s voluntary withdrawal). Still ahead: Roche Tecentriq adjuvant stage III colon (October 9), Roche Enspryng in thyroid eye disease (October 15), Viatris/Opus phentolamine ophthalmic (October 17). Summit’s ivonescimab HARMONi filing sits on a November 14 PDUFA. Roche’s three petrelintide phase 3 starts are on today’s calendar.