Biopharmaceuticals

MASON, Ohio -- September 01, 2026 -- Prasco, LLC has acquired a 130,000-plus square foot distribution facility in Carey, Ohio, expanding the pharmaceutical commercialization company's automation, cold-chain and secure storage capacity beyond its existing Mason, Ohio operations. The deal, announced Aug. 31, 2026, adds a second Ohio campus for the company, which works with more than 65 brand partners and supplies medications to over 70,000 pharmacies nationwide. Prasco specializes in Authorized Generics and end-to-end commercialization services for global drug brands.

The Carey site sits inside what Prasco describes as the Midwest pharmaceutical and logistics corridor, giving the company direct highway access to CDMOs, national distribution centers and major health systems. Prasco said the location strengthens its footprint in Ohio, a state it identified as one of the most active life sciences markets in the country.

CARY, N.C. -- September 01, 2026 -- Veloxis Pharmaceuticals dosed the first participant on Aug. 31, 2026, in its Phase 2 RENGEVITY-201 trial testing pegrizeprument, an investigational immunosuppressive drug, against tacrolimus in kidney transplant recipients. The Cary, North Carolina-based company, a unit of Asahi Kasei Corporation, will enroll up to 120 de novo kidney transplant patients across multiple sites in the randomized, partially blinded study registered as NCT07290777. Patients will receive one of two pegrizeprument doses or tacrolimus, each layered on top of rATG, corticosteroids and mycophenolate maintenance therapy.

INDIANAPOLIS and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Aug. 31, 2026 -- Eli Lilly and Company agreed to pay up to $2.875 billion in cash to acquire Merida Biosciences, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company developing antibody-degrading therapies for autoimmune and allergic diseases. The figure includes an upfront payment plus contingent milestone payments under a definitive agreement announced by both companies. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- September 01, 2026 -- IDEAYA Biosciences said its FDA Type C meeting on IDE849, a DLL3-targeting antibody drug conjugate, produced agreement on a Phase 3 registrational trial design for extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). The Nasdaq-listed company (IDYA) plans to enroll roughly 400 patients who have already received tarlatamab, randomizing them 1:1 between IDE849 monotherapy and an investigator's choice control arm of topotecan and amrubicin. IDEAYA is targeting trial initiation by year-end 2026.