Editor’s Briefing: October 19, 2026

In Short. Disc Medicine said its pill bitopertin met every goal of a large trial in a rare disease that makes sunlight painful. Before a cancer meeting this week, Zentalis, Genentech and AbbVie released survival and head-to-head results.

Disc Medicine’s sunlight drug meets every endpoint

ERYTHROPOIETIC PROTOPORPHYRIA, or EPP, is an inherited disease in which a substance called protoporphyrin IX builds up in the blood and causes severe pain when skin is exposed to sunlight. On Monday morning Disc Medicine said its oral drug bitopertin met both main goals of APOLLO, a placebo-controlled trial in 183 adults and adolescents (Disc filing). After six months, bitopertin cut protoporphyrin IX by 41.4% more than placebo and added 12.2 hours a month of time in light without pain. Every secondary endpoint, including fewer painful reactions to light, was also met. The only approved treatment for EPP is Scenesse, a hormone implant that stimulates production of melanin, the skin’s pigment. Dizziness affected half of patients on the drug and was mild or moderate. Disc plans to resubmit its application to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2026, with a decision expected by mid-2027, and to present fuller data at a medical meeting.

Zentalis reports survival by biomarker in ovarian cancer

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals published the first overall-survival data for azenosertib, a pill that blocks an enzyme called WEE1, which cancer cells use to pause and repair damaged DNA before dividing (Zentalis release). The 102 patients in this part of the DENALI trial had platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, meaning it had returned after standard chemotherapy. Patients whose tumors made a protein called Cyclin E1 lived a median of 15.8 months, against 7.5 months for those whose tumors did not. Cyclin E1 status was determined after treatment for 94 of the patients, and the trial had no comparison group, so the gap may partly reflect how the disease behaves rather than the drug. The abstract says survival compared favorably with past results for single-agent chemotherapy, and two further trials, DENALI Part 2 and the phase III ASPENOVA, are under way to confirm whether the drug works. Full results come at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress, known as ESMO, in Madrid on October 23rd.

Genentech’s divarasib beats older KRAS drugs

KRAS is a gene that drives cancer growth when mutated, and the G12C form of the mutation is common in lung cancer. Two first-generation drugs already target G12C. On Sunday Genentech, part of Roche, said its newer drug divarasib proved superior to those drugs, sotorasib and adagrasib, in a phase III trial called Krascendo 1, in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who had already been treated (Genentech release). A phase III trial is the large stage that usually supports approval. The release gave no figures ahead of the meeting, so the size of the advantage is not yet known. Genentech will present the trial as a late-breaking abstract at ESMO, which runs from October 23rd to 27th.

AbbVie’s Temab-A extends survival in colorectal cancer

AbbVie released early data for Temab-A, an antibody-drug conjugate, which is an antibody that carries a toxic payload to cells bearing a target protein, in this case one called c-Met (AbbVie release). In a phase I study of previously treated advanced colorectal cancer, Temab-A given with the drug bevacizumab shrank tumors in 9 of 30 patients (30%). Median survival was 14.7 months, against 10.2 months for 20 patients on standard care, regardless of how much c-Met their tumors made. The groups were small and the study is early, so a phase III trial, AndroMETa-CRC-560, is now under way to test the result. AbbVie said no new safety problems appeared.

What to watch

Monday, 8am Eastern time: Disc Medicine’s webcast on the APOLLO results.
Friday October 23rd: Zentalis presents the DENALI survival data at ESMO in Madrid.
October 23rd to 27th: the full Krascendo 1 and Temab-A data at ESMO.