Daily briefings
Editor’s Briefing: October 21, 2026
In Short. Inovio won an $80.4m court judgment against the company that once made its DNA vaccines, though it may not collect it. Myriad Genetics agreed to sell its prenatal testing business to Labcorp for $210m.
Inovio wins an $80.4m judgment over vaccine manufacturing
A DNA PLASMID is a small loop of DNA that cells can read to make a protein, and Inovio builds its medicines from them. On Tuesday afternoon Inovio said a court in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, awarded it $80,416,101 against VGXI and GeneOne Life Science, the firm that had made its plasmids (Inovio release). The sum is $61,750,789 in damages plus $18,665,312 in fees and costs, and the court also ruled against the defendants on their counterclaims. Inovio sued in June 2020, when it was developing a covid-19 vaccine, because the defendants refused to hand over the know-how that would let another company make the plasmids at scale. Its lawyers at Cooley said post-judgment interest will be added, and that the counterclaims, which included a charge of trade-secret theft, were rejected in a ruling on September 9th (Cooley note). The company itself warns that the defendants’ financial condition will likely limit how much of the award it can recover.
Myriad Genetics sells its prenatal tests to Labcorp
Prenatal screening tests check a pregnancy, or prospective parents, for genetic conditions. Myriad Genetics said on Tuesday morning that it will sell its prenatal health business, which includes the Prequel, Foresight, SneakPeek and FirstGene tests, to Labcorp for $210m in cash plus the value of inventory at closing (Myriad release). More than 600,000 patients used the tests over the past twelve months, and Labcorp expects the business to bring in about $160m of revenue in its first year. Myriad said the sale lets it concentrate on tests used across cancer care. Labcorp has agreed to offer jobs to some of the staff who run the business (Myriad filing). The deal needs antitrust clearance and is expected to close by early 2027. Myriad will say more on its third-quarter call on November 4th.
Telix reports steady sales of its prostate cancer scans
PET imaging is a kind of scan in which a weakly radioactive tracer shows where a target sits in the body. Telix, an Australian company, sells tracers that find PSMA, a protein made in large amounts by prostate cancer cells. On Tuesday evening it reported revenue of $245m for the third quarter, 19% more than a year earlier (Telix release). Sales of its two PSMA scans, Illuccix and Gozellix, increased 30% to $201m, but group revenue was slightly below the $247m of the second quarter. Revenue from its manufacturing arm, which includes a network of American radiopharmacies, fell 6% to $44m. Telix said the FDA had approved Pixclara, a tracer for imaging glioma, a type of brain tumor, and that the first commercial doses were given in September. It also finished enrolling BiPASS, a late-stage trial of a scan used before a prostate biopsy, and agreed to merge with Isotope Technologies Munich, a German maker of radioactive isotopes. It expects revenue and other income above $1bn for 2026.
Teknova sells $40m of new shares
Teknova makes reagents, the media, buffers and other ingredients that laboratories use to grow cells and make gene therapies, vaccines and diagnostic tests. On Tuesday after the market closed it announced an offering of new shares, and that night it priced 8m shares at $5 each, for $40m before fees (Teknova release). TD Cowen and William Blair are running the sale, and the underwriters may buy up to 1.2m more shares within 30 days. Teknova said it may use the money to repay debt and for general corporate purposes (Teknova offering notice). The company has made such ingredients since 1996 and runs more than 180,000 square feet of plants in Hollister, California. The sale is expected to close on October 22nd.
What to watch
Cumberland Pharmaceuticals will present an update on ifetroban, a drug it is testing for the heart damage caused by Duchenne muscular dystrophy, an inherited muscle-wasting disease of boys, on October 26th (Cumberland release). Myriad reports its quarterly results on November 4th.