Editor’s Briefing: October 28, 2026

In Short. Lilly’s experimental drug retatrutide lowered blood sugar more than Ozempic and doubled weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes. Artiva is shutting down its cell therapy after two patient deaths.

Lilly’s retatrutide beats Ozempic in type 2 diabetes

TYPE 2 diabetes leaves the body unable to control the sugar in its blood. Doctors track it with A1C, a blood test that reflects average sugar levels over about three months. Eli Lilly’s retatrutide is a weekly injection that mimics three gut hormones, GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon, which help regulate appetite and blood sugar. Ozempic, from Novo Nordisk, mimics only GLP-1. On Wednesday morning Lilly reported TRANSCEND-T2D-2, a late-stage trial in 1,298 adults that compared the two drugs openly, with patients knowing which they received (Lilly release). After 80 weeks, both doses of retatrutide cut A1C by 2.2 points, against 1.8 on Ozempic’s top dose. Patients on retatrutide lost 19.5% to 20.9% of their weight, against 9.4% on Ozempic. Retatrutide also lowered cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood pressure more than Ozempic did. Side effects led about one in twenty to one in thirteen retatrutide patients to stop treatment, against about one in forty on Ozempic.

Artiva ends its cell therapy after two deaths

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks the body’s own joints. Artiva Biotherapeutics, based in San Diego, was testing AlloNK, a therapy made from donor natural killer cells (immune cells that destroy damaged cells), with rituximab, an antibody that removes the B cells that drive such diseases. On Tuesday it said it would stop developing AlloNK and cut nearly all of its workforce (Artiva release). One patient in a mid-stage trial died of a brain injury that investigators linked to fludarabine, a chemotherapy given to prepare patients for cell therapy. A second patient died suddenly about two months after treatment, of a cause not yet found. After the first death the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked Artiva to pause dosing in the trial. The company also said the benefit did not last long enough. It held about $319.1m in cash and investments and may sell or close the business.

Rapport sells $380m of stock and debt

Rapport Therapeutics, based in Boston and San Diego, develops small-molecule drugs for neurological and psychiatric disorders. On Tuesday evening it announced plans to sell shares and convertible notes, which are loans that can later be swapped for shares (Rapport announcement). Its shares fell by about a quarter in early trading on Wednesday. Before the market opened, the company set the terms (Rapport pricing). It will sell about $175.0m of shares at $21.00 each, $25.0m of warrants that convert to shares, and $150.0m of convertible notes paying 2.25% a year and due in 2032. One investor agreed to buy about $30.0m of shares at the same price. The deals are expected to close on October 30th.

Ferring agrees to buy fertility company Gameto

In vitro fertilization, or IVF, joins eggs and sperm in a laboratory. Women usually take about two weeks of daily hormone injections first so that their eggs mature inside the ovary. Gameto, a private company, is developing Fertilo, which matures eggs outside the body using support cells grown from stem cells and could shorten that process. On Tuesday Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a privately owned Swiss maker of fertility drugs, agreed to buy Gameto for up to $1.3825bn, depending on development, regulatory and sales milestones (Gameto announcement). The deal has not yet closed, and the firms will run separately until it does. Fertilo has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in America, where it remains under study (BioPharma Dive).

Kiniksa’s heart drug passes $1bn in yearly sales

Recurrent pericarditis is an inflammation of the sac around the heart that keeps coming back and causes chest pain. Arcalyst, from Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, blocks IL-1, an immune signal that drives the inflammation. On Tuesday Kiniksa reported third-quarter sales of Arcalyst of $286.0m, up about 58% from $180.9m a year earlier (Kiniksa release). It now expects $1.045bn to $1.050bn in sales this year, up from a forecast of $980m to $995m. About 23% of the 14,000 Americans with repeated attacks each year are taking the drug, for about three years on average. Net income rose to $47.3m from $18.4m. Kiniksa expects late-stage results in the second half of 2027 for KPL-387, a monthly injection aimed at the same disease.