Editor’s Briefing: October 30, 2026

Iovance updates its lung cancer cell therapy trial

NON-SMALL-CELL lung cancer is the most common form of the disease. Iovance Biotherapeutics makes lifileucel, a therapy built from tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), immune cells taken from a patient’s own tumor, multiplied in a laboratory and infused back. On Thursday it gave updated results from its IOV-LUN-202 trial in 69 patients whose disease had spread and kept growing after chemotherapy and immune drugs (Iovance release). Tumors shrank in 17 of them, or 24.6%, close to the 25.6% reported earlier in 39 patients. Two of those 17 responses still await confirmation. In a retrospective analysis, one that looks back at results after the fact, patients whose tumors lacked mutations in two genes, KRAS and HER2, and who had smoked responded 59.1% of the time (13 of 22). Iovance will test that group prospectively in a new cohort starting in November and plans to seek approval in the broader group in 2027.

Illumina lifts its forecast for the year

Illumina, a Californian company, makes the machines and chemicals that most laboratories use to read DNA, a process called sequencing. On Thursday afternoon it reported revenue of $1.13 billion for the three months to September, up 4.2% from a year earlier (Illumina results). Its chief executive, Jacob Thaysen, said “healthy clinical demand and robust NovaSeq X placements drove results above our guidance.” Leaving out refunds of import tariffs, the company now expects revenue of $4.64 billion to $4.66 billion for the year, against an earlier range of $4.60 billion to $4.64 billion. It also lifted its forecast of adjusted earnings per share to $5.40 to $5.45. The company still excludes Greater China from part of its growth figures, because China has placed it on a list of foreign firms barred from some trade there.

The Labor Department finalizes a rule on drug middlemen

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are companies that run prescription drug coverage for employers and insurers. They negotiate discounts from drug makers, called rebates, and pay pharmacies for each prescription. On Thursday the Department of Labor finalized a rule requiring PBMs that serve large self-insured employer health plans, those that pay their workers’ medical bills directly, to disclose what they earn (Labor Department release). The disclosures must cover rebates and other payments from drug makers, the gap between what a plan pays for a drug and what the pharmacy receives, and money taken back from pharmacies after a sale. PBMs must report before a contract is signed and twice a year afterward, and plans may audit them. The rule applies to plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2027.

Aspen prices a stock market listing for a Parkinson’s cell therapy

Parkinson’s disease kills the brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical messenger that helps control movement. Aspen Neuroscience, a San Diego company, is developing sasineprocel, a treatment made by turning a patient’s own skin or blood cells into stem cells that can become many cell types, then into dopamine cells that are placed in the brain. Because the cells come from the patient, the immune system should not reject them. On Thursday evening Aspen priced its initial public offering, its first sale of shares on a stock exchange, at $15 a share (Aspen release). It is selling 9,375,000 shares for about $140.6m before fees. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange today, and the sale should close on November 2nd.

What to watch

Aspen’s shares begin trading today, and its offering is due to close on Monday. Iovance expects to give further updates on its broader lung cancer program in 2027, after the trial’s final group of about 80 patients is complete. The Labor Department rule takes effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register, although its requirements apply only from July 2027.