Editor’s Briefing: November 5, 2026

In Short. Rhythm Pharmaceuticals received a non-binding offer of about $10 billion from AstraZeneca, Reuters reported. Lyell shared new lymphoma cell-therapy results, Veracyte trimmed a testing outlook, and Evommune licensed an experimental autoimmune pill.

AstraZeneca offers to buy Rhythm Pharmaceuticals

ASTRAZENECA MADE a non-binding offer of about $10 billion to acquire Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, according to three people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported on Wednesday afternoon (Reuters). AstraZeneca offered as much as $134 a share, including extra payments if later goals are met. Reuters noted that the Wall Street Journal had earlier reported a $124-a-share offer last month. Two of the people said the purchase would be handled through Alexion, AstraZeneca's rare-disease unit, which it bought for $39 billion in 2021. An AstraZeneca spokesperson declined to comment, and representatives for Rhythm did not respond. Rhythm sells Imcivree, a medicine for rare forms of severe obesity. In March the Food and Drug Administration expanded the drug's use to obesity caused by brain damage, making it the first treatment approved in the country for that condition. Rhythm's medicines target rare genetic forms of obesity, not the broader market for general weight-loss drugs.

Lyell reports high response rates in a lymphoma cell-therapy trial

Large B-cell lymphoma is a blood cancer that often begins in the lymph nodes. Lyell Immunopharma, of South San Francisco, is testing rondecabtagene autoleucel (ronde-cel), a CAR-T therapy that engineers a patient's T cells to recognize two tumor proteins, CD19 and CD20. On Wednesday it reported results from 44 patients who could be evaluated in PiNACLE, a late-stage trial for lymphoma that had come back after at least two earlier treatments (Lyell release). Of those patients, 91% had their cancer shrink and 77% had no detectable cancer. An estimated 92% of those complete responses were still present at six months, and 75% at 12 months. No patient had a severe inflammatory reaction known as grade 3 or higher cytokine release syndrome, while 9% had a similarly severe brain-related side effect known as ICANS.

Veracyte trims its testing sales outlook

Veracyte, of South San Francisco, sells genomic tests that analyze tissue to help doctors decide on treatment: Afirma for thyroid samples and Decipher Prostate for prostate cancers. On Wednesday afternoon it reported results for the quarter ended September 30 (Veracyte release). Total revenue was $151.8m, up 15% from $131.9m a year earlier. Sales of Decipher Prostate rose 12% to $92.3m, and sales of Afirma rose 19% to $51.5m. The company ran about 29,900 Decipher Prostate tests and about 19,100 Afirma tests, each up 12% in volume from a year earlier. It said Decipher Prostate volume was below its expectations, while Afirma outperformed. It now expects 2026 testing revenue of $571m to $573m, compared with an earlier range of $576m to $582m. Total revenue is now expected at $590m to $593m, compared with $590m to $596m.

Evommune licenses a pill designed to destroy an immune-signaling protein

Molecular glue degraders are pills that tag a chosen protein so the cell's own disposal machinery destroys it. Evommune, of Palo Alto, California, said on Wednesday that it had licensed exclusive rights outside Greater China to EVO570, such a pill discovered by Hinova Pharmaceuticals of Chengdu, China (Evommune release). EVO570 is designed to destroy VAV1, a signaling protein that helps activate T cells and B cells and is found mostly in immune cells, unlike the more widely distributed JAK enzymes blocked by some existing autoimmune pills. Evommune will pay $20m in cash and $10m in pre-funded warrants for shares at the outset, then up to $150m more if development and regulatory steps are met and up to $920m more if commercial goals are met. Hinova keeps rights in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. A request to start human testing has been accepted in the United States and submitted in China. A first trial is due to start soon, and a study in rheumatoid arthritis is planned for 2027.

ADMA reports higher sales of its specialized antibody medicine

Primary immunodeficiency is a group of inherited conditions in which a person does not make enough antibodies to fight infection. ADMA Biologics, based in Ramsey, New Jersey, and Boca Raton, Florida, sells concentrated antibodies purified from donated human plasma, known as immune globulins, for that problem. On Wednesday afternoon it reported results for the quarter ended September 30 (ADMA release). Total revenue was $141.1m, up 5% from $134.2m a year earlier. Sales of ASCENIV, its specialized immune globulin, were $124.7m, 31% higher than a year earlier and 21% higher than in the prior quarter. Sales of BIVIGAM, its standard immune globulin, fell to $15.4m from $23.8m a year earlier and from $19.4m in the prior quarter. Net income was $49.9m, up from $36.4m a year earlier.