Pharmaceuticals & Biopharmaceuticals

Boston – October 06, 2026 -- Luminous Mind, Inc. (LMI) has secured U.S. Patent No. 12,697,362, covering technology that produces non-hallucinogenic psychedelic fungi, targeting a functional mushroom market Grand View Research values at $38.2 billion for 2025.

Patent strips psilocybin while preserving secondary metabolites

The patent isolates beneficial compounds found in psilocybin-containing mushrooms -- secondary metabolites and active fungal molecules typically overshadowed by the hallucinogen. By removing psilocybin, LMI says the resulting products retain potential nutraceutical benefits without triggering hallucinations, opening a path to mass-market commercialization that psychedelic-based products cannot access under current regulatory frameworks.

Salt Lake City – October 06, 2026 -- ARUP Laboratories has secured a spot in the second cohort of challenge projects on Utah's Redtail AI Factory, gaining access to a supercomputer ranked No. 159 globally to accelerate a proprietary diagnostic AI model for blood cancer detection.

ARUP's EventHorizon model targets faster, more accurate blood cancer diagnosis

The project, titled "Scaling EventHorizon with Redtail: A Foundation Model for Clinical Flow Cytometry," aims to build a foundation model that helps pathologists interpret complex flow cytometry data used to diagnose blood cancers and other hematologic diseases. The tool is being developed by a team at the ARUP Institute for Research and Innovation in Diagnostic and Precision Medicine, including David Ng, MD, FCAP, and research data scientists Muir Morrison and Mattia Medina Grespan.

Holon, Israel – October 06, 2026 -- Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN; TASE: CGEN) will join a fireside chat at the H.C. Wainwright 3rd Annual AI Based Drug Discovery & Development Conference, a virtual event running October 8-9, 2026.

Management confirms October 8 session with live investor webcast

The fireside chat is scheduled for Thursday, October 06, 2026, at 9:30 AM ET. A live webcast will stream via the Investor Relations events page on Compugen's website, with a replay available afterward.

Dallas – October 06, 2026 -- Nanoscope Therapeutics will present four-year durability data from its RESTORE Phase 2b/3 trial of optogenetic therapy MCO-010 in retinitis pigmentosa at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2026 Annual Meeting, running October 8–13 in New Orleans.

Four-year REMAIN data to show durability of vision gains in retinitis pigmentosa

Dr. Kenneth C. Fan will present the REMAIN study results on Sunday, October 11, highlighting sustained vision improvement among patients treated with MCO-010 in the RESTORE trial. A separate scientific poster from Dr. David S. Boyer will detail vision improvement with sonpiretigene isteparvovec in dry age-related macular degeneration, drawn from what the company describes as the first direct-to-Phase 2 randomized controlled trial in that indication.

Barcelona – October 06, 2026 -- Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) said its Data Quality System (DQS) has aggregated and cleaned data for more than 1 million subjects across over 1,000 clinical studies, automating over 500,000 queries and eliminating thousands of hours of manual data reconciliation for sites and sponsors.

Veeva DQS automates over 500,000 queries to speed analysis-ready data delivery

The platform classifies and visualizes critical trial data while orchestrating risk-based actions across the clinical ecosystem, removing manual reconciliation steps that have historically slowed data lock and submission timelines.

Novo cites rising trial data volume as key driver for automated data management

Ibrahim Kamstrup-Akkaoui, vice president at Novo, said managing data from a growing number of clinical trials is a priority, and that Veeva DQS helps the company manage, format, clean, and prepare data for submission more efficiently.

San Diego – October 06, 2026 -- Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) has initiated Part 2 of a maintenance dosing study for VK2735, its dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, testing oral tablet regimens alongside subcutaneous options to sustain weight loss after initial treatment.

Trial enrolls 195 obese adults to test five maintenance pathways

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will enroll approximately 195 adults with obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). All participants first receive 21 weeks of weekly subcutaneous VK2735 or placebo before transitioning to one of five maintenance arms: daily oral doses, weekly oral doses, monthly subcutaneous doses, every-other-week subcutaneous doses, or placebo. The study runs through Week 33, tracking safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and body weight change from baseline and from Week 21.

Dover, Delaware – October 06, 2026 -- The Digital CMC Consortium has launched as a new industry collaboration aimed at the end-to-end digitalization of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) processes in drug development. Founding participants include Novartis, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Takeda, Rockwell Automation, Flagship's Pioneering Medicines, Stellix, ZS Associates, and QbDVision.

Consortium targets legacy PDF-based workflows that bottleneck drug development

The CMC phase of pharmaceutical development remains tethered to manual, document-based processes that treat PDF tables as the source of truth, despite rapid advances in drug discovery and clinical trial digitization elsewhere in the industry. The Consortium aims to convert static CMC knowledge into reusable, interoperable digital assets to improve speed, quality, and regulatory confidence.

Lexington – October 06, 2026 -- Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS) has opened a new microbiology laboratory at its Lexington site that more than triples existing testing space and is expected to cut testing times by up to 50%.

New Grade A isolator doubles sterility testing capacity at the site

The facility's centerpiece is a fully integrated, Grade A sterility testing isolator housed within a dedicated suite with a Grade C background environment, a major upgrade from the previously non-classified testing area. The isolator supports both open and closed filtration methods and allows multiple samples to be processed simultaneously, doubling the site's sterility testing capacity.

Leiden – – October 06, 2026 -- Qurin has launched the Qatra Genomic DNA Extraction Lab Kit (RUO), a Research Use Only product capable of processing urine volumes up to 400 mL, a full void, compared with the 40-50 mL standard in conventional laboratory workflows.

Qatra kit delivers 7.6-fold increase in DNA yield in internal studies

In internal studies, average DNA yields rose 7.6-fold as sample volume increased from 50 mL to 400 mL. Qurin states this volume expansion could allow researchers to recover substantially more biomarker material from a single sample, particularly relevant when target DNA is present at low concentrations.

Oxford, England – October 06, 2026 -- Perspectum, an Oxford-based precision health company, has appointed Warren Cresswell as Chief Executive Officer, bringing more than 25 years of diagnostics and medical device leadership to the firm's push into liver and cardiometabolic disease imaging. The placement was executed by Slone Partners, a nationwide executive search firm serving life sciences and healthcare organizations.

Cresswell previously led Nestlé-owned Prometheus Laboratories through a growth phase

Cresswell served as President and CEO of Prometheus Laboratories, a Nestlé Health Science company, where he directed the diagnostics business through a period of significant expansion. He has built commercial and CLIA-certified laboratory infrastructure supporting FDA-cleared diagnostics in the United States and most recently served as CEO of a precision oncology company.