Editor’s Briefing: October 13, 2026

In Short. Syndax said its antibody failed to slow lung scarring in a mid-stage trial and dropped that use. Freenome reported that an updated blood test for bowel cancer catches more of the growths that come before it.

Syndax drops its antibody for lung scarring after a trial miss

SYNDAX PHARMACEUTICALS said on Monday afternoon that axatilimab did not meet the main goal of MAXPIRe, a mid-stage (phase 2) trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease of unknown cause in which the lungs scar and stiffen. That goal was the yearly rate of decline in forced vital capacity, the volume of air a person can blow out after a deep breath, worked out from measurements taken over 26 weeks. The trial assigned 145 patients at 62 sites in 14 countries at random, two for every one, to the antibody every two weeks or to a dummy infusion, with the groups balanced for whether patients already took a drug to slow the scarring. The company gave no numbers for lung function. It said side effects were similar in both groups and that no deaths were linked to treatment. Syndax will stop developing the drug for this disease. Axatilimab is already sold, as Niktimvo, for chronic graft-versus-host disease, in which transplanted immune cells attack the patient, and those trials continue.

Freenome’s updated bowel-cancer blood test finds more early growths

Freenome said its updated SimpleScreen CRC test, a blood test for colorectal cancer, detected 18.2% of advanced precancerous lesions, growths in the bowel that can turn into cancer, in a validation study of 1,570 people who had such lesions. The original version of the test, approved by the FDA in July, detected 13.7% of them among 2,567 people in its own study. Among 157 people whose lesions showed high-grade dysplasia, cells that look closest to cancer, it detected 41.9%, against 30.5% of 110 such people for the original. The new version found 80.4% of the 89 cancers in the study, and 90% of people whose colonoscopy found nothing tested negative. The figures are weighted to the age and sex mix of America’s population. The updated test is not yet approved, and Freenome plans to ask the FDA to extend the approval. A trade report on Monday noted that the company has not reported safety outcomes or approval of the new version.

Savara will show longer-term data for an inhaled drug for a rare lung disease

Savara said it will present two analyses of molgramostim at the CHEST meeting of lung doctors in Phoenix next week. The drug treats autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, a rare disease in which the body makes antibodies against GM-CSF, a signal that immune cells in the lung’s air sacs need in order to clear surfactant, the fatty film that keeps the sacs open. Without that clearing, surfactant builds up and patients grow short of breath. Molgramostim is a lab-made copy of GM-CSF that patients breathe in through a nebulizer. One talk, on October 20th, covers patients who stayed on the drug after the late-stage IMPALA-2 trial ended. A poster on October 21st looks at patients whose lungs were only mildly impaired.

Harmony names a new chief executive for next year

Harmony Biosciences said that Jeffrey Dayno, its chief executive, will retire on December 31st after nine years at the company. Peter Anastasiou, its chief operating officer and a former board member, will take over on January 1st. Before joining Harmony he ran Capsida Biotherapeutics, a gene-therapy firm, and led Lundbeck’s North American business. Harmony sells Wakix (pitolisant), a pill for narcolepsy, a disorder that causes overwhelming daytime sleepiness. The company kept its forecast of $1bn to $1.04bn in Wakix sales for 2026. It still expects to report results this quarter from a study of rising doses of BP-205, a drug that mimics orexin, a brain signal that keeps people awake.

What to watch

• Wednesday, October 14th: Freenome presents the updated test at the American College of Gastroenterology meeting in Nashville.
• Thursday, October 15th: the FDA is due to decide on Roche’s Enspryng in thyroid eye disease, according to pdufa.bio.
• October 20th and 21st: Savara’s molgramostim presentations at CHEST.