Healthcare, Pharma & Life Sciences

Edmonton – October 15, 2026 -- Aurora Cannabis' board unanimously recommended that shareholders reject Curaleaf Holdings' revised hostile offer, which remains open until October 15, 2026, and said its special committee is actively exploring alternatives, including a deal with one or more third parties.

The recommendation, made on the unanimous advice of a special committee of independent directors, responds to the Notice of Variation, Change and Extension that Curaleaf filed on October 15, 2026. Aurora's financial advisor delivered an updated opinion concluding that the revised consideration is inadequate, from a financial point of view, to Aurora shareholders.

Board says revised offer shifts risk and cost onto Aurora shareholders

Aurora argues that the increase in consideration consists principally of Curaleaf shares at an inflated valuation. Aurora shareholders would therefore stay fully exposed to any decline in the Curaleaf share price.

Richmond, Va. – October 15, 2026 -- Owens & Minor has launched ARMOR-FLEX* Sterilization Wrap, a heavyweight wrap developed in-house and made in Lexington, N.C., that the company says is stronger, more flexible and more bacteria-resistant than traditional heavyweight wraps without adding weight.

The product joins the Halyard® portfolio and targets sterility breaches that can compromise patient safety and cause delays in the operating room.

ASSURE-DRY technology targets slow-drying, hard-to-handle heavyweight wraps

Owens & Minor says many heavyweight wraps rely on bulk for protection. That added weight can make them harder to work with, slower to dry and more prone to incidents that may affect sterility. ARMOR-FLEX* instead combines patent-pending ASSURE-DRY* moisture management technology with proprietary manufacturing techniques.

NEW YORK – October 15, 2026 -- More than 100 specialty practices running ModMed EMA now use Medsender to manage incoming referrals, 16 months after the fax and referral management platform launched its EMA integration.

Referral leakage costs practices up to 10% of revenue

Specialists receive more than 100 million referral requests a year in the United States, yet only half are completed, according to Medsender. The company says mismanaged referrals can cost practices up to 10% of their revenue, and that most practices cannot measure the loss until a system tracks it.

Pittsburgh – October 15, 2026 -- Allegheny Health Network (AHN) has appointed surgical oncologist Nipun B. Merchant, MD, as chair of its Department of Surgery and its first surgeon-in-chief, effective February 2027.

New surgeon-in-chief role centralizes oversight of network surgery

The newly created position makes Merchant the senior physician executive for AHN's surgical enterprise, with strategic oversight of surgical services across the network's hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. As chair, he will lead the department's clinical, academic and strategic growth, including faculty recruitment, expansion of advanced surgical programs, education and research. He will work with physicians, nurses and operational leaders on quality, safety and patient experience.

AHN says the role reflects a push toward a more integrated model of surgical care across its growing network.

Woonsocket – October 15, 2026 -- CVS Health's MinuteClinic has earned its seventh consecutive Joint Commission Ambulatory Health Care Accreditation, covering more than 800 locations nationwide and MinuteClinic Virtual Care, and for the first time the survey assessed its primary care sites under Medical Center standards.

Approximately 80 percent of the locations surveyed offer primary care and were evaluated under those standards. More than 65 percent of all MinuteClinic locations now offer primary care to patients 18 and older through health system and payer affiliations.

Greenwich – October 15, 2026 -- WIN, a fertility and family support benefit company, has appointed three senior leaders to newly created roles as its supported population grows from more than 500,000 to nearly one million families over two years.

Claudio Stefan joins as Chief Growth Officer, Stacey Zeltner as Chief People Officer, and Dr. Michael Meighu as Vice President of Artificial Intelligence. The company says the hires will help it scale employer and health plan partnerships, build the organization to support that growth, and apply emerging technology to benefits delivery.

WIN reports 900 employer clients covering 9.5 million lives

The employer base has grown 20% in two years. WIN also expanded from 55 to 124 countries, a 125% increase.

Tucson – October 15, 2026 -- Siensmetrica, Inc. has changed its name to Tessa AI, Inc. effective October 7, aligning the company with the brand of its AI research evaluation platform, Tessa, and signaling a push beyond paper scoring into tools for the full lifecycle of scientific research.

Tessa AI has served biomedical users since a May 2026 launch

Since its May 2026 launch, the Tessa platform has been used by researchers, clinicians, and biopharma professionals to evaluate biomedical studies. Each score comes with the evidence behind it. The company said customers, partners, and its own team already called it Tessa.

The former name was a coined word meaning roughly "knowledge measurement," reflecting the company's origin as a system for scoring published research. Siensmetrica.com now redirects to tessaai.co.

Oxford – October 15, 2026 -- Brainomix has partnered with the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) to test how patients and caregivers respond when its FDA-cleared, CE-marked e-Lung quantitative CT analysis is built into clinicians' assessment workflow for pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and other fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (ILD).

Patient research targets how CT metrics shape treatment conversations

The multi-phase initiative will examine how objective quantitative CT metrics could improve clinicians' understanding of disease change over time. It will also assess how patients experience and understand those insights.

Toronto – October 14, 2026 -- Real-world discontinuation of weight-loss medications can reach 67% within 12 months, while clinical trials show sustained weight reduction of 15–22% over 72 weeks, according to materials for an Xtalks webinar featuring Clinical ink executives on October 29.

Psychology, not only side effects, drives discontinuation of obesity therapy

Side effects, cost and access explain only part of the drop-off, the organizers state. Confidence, doubt and treatment identity are increasingly recognized as independent predictors of discontinuation. Motivations differ by patient, rooted in appearance, day-to-day function or long-term health risk.

Most patient support programs have no validated way to identify behavioral risk before it affects outcomes, creating a gap for pharma teams managing obesity portfolios.

Atlanta – October 14, 2026 -- Solv Wellness, a women's health company focused on perimenopause and menopause, has appointed Christine Vaccaro, DO, FACOG, MSCP, as its first Chief Medical Officer, effective immediately.

Vaccaro will advise the company on its menopause education strategy and support educational initiatives for patients and healthcare professionals. She will also contribute to patient and clinician resources and represent the company in select media, speaking and educational programs.

Appointment targets a documented menopause education gap

The company cites two data points behind the move. Fewer than one in three U.S. OB/GYN residency programs offer a dedicated menopause curriculum, according to a 2023 study in the journal Menopause. Only about half of women going through menopause have consulted a health professional about it, according to a 2024 AARP survey.