Editor’s Briefing: October 14, 2026

In Short. Liquidia agreed to pay United Therapeutics $380.7m to end six lawsuits and keep selling its inhaled drug for lung blood-vessel disease. Entrada reported that its Duchenne drug was safe at a low dose but made very little muscle protein.

Liquidia pays to end its long fight with United Therapeutics

LIQUIDIA said on Tuesday evening that it had settled all six lawsuits between it and United Therapeutics, its larger rival. The cases turned on Yutrepia, Liquidia’s dry-powder inhaled form of treprostinil, a drug that widens blood vessels in the lungs. It is used in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), in which high pressure in the arteries of the lungs strains the heart. Under the deal Liquidia will pay a net $175m within 30 business days and a further $145.4m in two equal installments due by the end of January and the end of April 2027. Related agreements bring the total to $380.7m. Yutrepia stays on sale for PAH without interruption. In return Liquidia will remove a second use, pulmonary hypertension linked to interstitial lung disease, from its label and stop promoting the drug for it. Its shares rose by about half before the market opened on Wednesday.

Entrada’s Duchenne drug clears its first safety test

ENTRADA THERAPEUTICS reported on Wednesday morning the first results from ELEVATE-45-201, an early trial of ENTR-601-45 in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In Duchenne a faulty gene leaves muscle short of dystrophin, a protein that holds muscle cells together. The drug is a short strand of genetic material that makes cells skip over the broken stretch of the gene, known as exon 45, so that a slightly shorter but working protein can be made. About 9% of all people with Duchenne carry a fault this approach could treat, according to the company. Eight boys and young men were assigned at random, three for every one, to three doses of 5mg per kilogram of body weight or a dummy drug. The main goal was safety, which was met, and no one left the study. Dystrophin rose by a mean of 0.10% of the normal level in the six treated participants, against a small fall in those on the dummy drug. Entrada expected little at this dose and is now testing 10mg per kilogram, with results due in the first half of 2027.

SAB wins a faster path for its type 1 diabetes drug

SAB BIOTHERAPEUTICS said on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), America’s drug regulator, had given Fast Track status to SAB-142. It allows more frequent meetings with the agency. SAB-142 is a human version of anti-thymocyte globulin, an antibody mixture that damps down the immune cells that attack insulin-making cells in type 1 diabetes. It is being tested in SAFEGUARD, a trial in people diagnosed within the past 100 days. SAB expects to finish enrolling patients this quarter and to report the main results in the second half of 2027.

Verastem raises $250m for its cancer pipeline

VERASTEM ONCOLOGY said early on Wednesday that it had priced an offering of about 30.9m new shares at $8 each, plus warrants for a further 312,503 shares, raising roughly $250m before fees. Verastem sells a combination treatment for a rare form of ovarian cancer driven by changes in the RAS signaling pathway, which tells cells to grow. It said the money will mainly fund VS-7375, an experimental drug aimed at a mutated form of the KRAS protein found in many lung, bowel and pancreatic tumors.

Alector sets dates for its brain-delivery drugs

ALECTOR used a webinar on Tuesday to lay out timelines for drugs built on its brain carrier, a part of the molecule that latches onto a receptor for iron transport to cross the barrier between blood and brain. Its lead, AL137, is an antibody against amyloid, the protein that clumps in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, given as an injection under the skin. A first study in healthy volunteers is planned in Australia around April 2027. Two programs that silence genes for tau and alpha-synuclein, proteins linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, aim to enter people in the second quarter of 2028. Alector said a recent license deal with Genentech, which paid $100m upfront, gives it enough cash to run into 2029.