Upfront Briefing
Tuesday's split-screen: AbbVie and Genmab's Epkinly cut progression risk 51% on top of R-CHOP in frontline DLBCL, a direct shot at Roche's Polivy, while ArriVent's firmonertinib missed on central-read PFS in its Phase 3 and more than half the company's value went with it. On the capital side, Forbion closed €2.3B across two funds with Lilly in the LP base, and Vaxcyte turned Monday's VAX-31 win into a $1B stock-and-convert raise overnight.
Tape Action
| Instrument |
Last close |
1D % |
YTD % |
| S&P 500 |
7,818.9 |
0.6% |
14.0% |
| Nasdaq 100 |
31,224.5 |
0.5% |
23.9% |
| Russell 2000 |
2,830.3 |
(0.6%) |
12.8% |
| Healthcare (XLV) |
167.1 |
(0.2%) |
7.4% |
| Biotech (XBI) |
150.9 |
(3.4%) |
24.2% |
| Nasdaq Biotech (NBI) |
6,860.2 |
(2.3%) |
20.2% |
| Clinical Trials (BBC) |
43.3 |
(3.0%) |
15.0% |
|
- Biotech sharply underperformed: XBI (3.4%), NBI (2.3%) and BBC (3.0%) against XLV (0.2%), with only 48 of 428 Russell 2000 healthcare names finishing higher. Single-name losers included ArriVent, down about 57% in early trading after its pre-open FURVENT miss, and Novavax, down 9%.
- The S&P 500 (+0.6%) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.5%) closed at records as Nvidia neared a $6T market cap and AMD rose 2.8% on Lisa Su's comment that compute demand is outrunning supply. Brent fell 1.6% to $98.67 after the G7 agreed to release 100M barrels of reserves over four months, with the 10-year holding near 5.3%; the Fed's September minutes land Wednesday.
- Market data: U.S. cash close Tuesday, 6 October 2026.
The Big 3
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1
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AbbVie, Genmab post Phase 3 first-line DLBCL win for Epkinly
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- Epkinly (epcoritamab; CD3xCD20 bispecific) plus R-CHOP cut the risk of progression or death by 51% versus R-CHOP alone (HR 0.49) in the Phase 3 EPCORE DLBCL-2 trial in newly diagnosed DLBCL, with the primary PFS endpoint read in IPI 3–5 patients. Safety matched prior data; OS was not reported.
- Why it matters: A 0.49 hazard ratio on top of R-CHOP clears the bar Roche set with Polivy, whose POLARIX regimen posted 0.73. That is cross-trial, but the gap is wide enough to shift frontline prescribing debates. Polivy booked about $972M in the first half against Epkinly's $312M, so the first-line setting is where Epkinly's revenue base gets rebuilt; TD Cowen puts peak sales near $3B with a 1L label. It also rescues a DLBCL program that missed on survival as monotherapy, while Roche's same-class Columvi was turned down in second-line with GemOx in 2025. What remains open is OS maturity, and whether the IPI 3–5 primary analysis narrows the label.
- Source: Endpoints
- More: Fierce Pharma; BioPharma Dive
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2
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ArriVent stock sinks after Phase 3 lung cancer failure
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- Firmonertinib (EGFR TKI) missed the primary endpoint of the Phase 3 FURVENT trial in first-line EGFR exon 20 insertion NSCLC (n=398). Blinded central-read median PFS was 11.0 months on the high dose versus 9.5 months on platinum chemo, which was not statistically significant, and 8.4 months on the low dose. AVBP opened at $12.37, down 57%.
- Why it matters: Investigator-read PFS (11.1 vs 7.1 months) and a 60% vs 33% response rate show the drug is active, but blinded central review is the regulatory read, and on that measure the chemo arm ran well ahead of the 6.7 months it posted in J&J's PAPILLON study. Rybrevant set the bar at 11.4 months; firmonertinib needed a clear win against chemo to claim an oral alternative and got a numerical one instead. The low dose trailing chemo also undercuts any dose-optimisation rescue. With a first-line exon 20 filing now hard to see, the equity trades on cash and the rest of the pipeline.
- Source: Endpoints
- More: Fierce Biotech; BioPharma Dive
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| 3 | Forbion closes €2.3B across its venture and growth funds |
- Forbion closed €2.3B ($2.6B) across Forbion Ventures Fund VIII and Growth Opportunities Fund IV, its largest haul, up from about €2B in 2024. Eli Lilly, KfW Capital and the Kauffman Foundation are among the LPs; the capital will back about 30 companies, and some investments are already made.
- Why it matters: Managing partner Sander Slootweg pitched the close against a general shortage of capital, which is why it matters: LP money is concentrating in managers with marked-up books, and Forbion's include Beacon Therapeutics and Gate Bioscience, whose Lilly pact was expanded last week. Lilly sitting in the LP base gives it early sight of a European pipeline it already partners with, without balance-sheet exposure. The growth fund is the part public-market readers should track, since it writes the crossover and late-stage cheques that bridge companies to listing as TRexBio and Retension set IPO terms. The split between the two funds was not disclosed.
- Source: Endpoints
- More: Fierce Biotech; BioPharma Dive
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Everything Else that broke
- AstraZeneca opened an 18-storey, 570,000 sq ft R&D centre in Kendall Square housing nearly 2,000 scientists, part of a $1B Massachusetts commitment. — Fierce Biotech
- Nuvig, backed by Novo Holdings, BMS, Sanofi and Bayer, halted NVG-2089 in CIDP after enrolling 14 patients since April 2025, citing cost and timelines rather than safety; its ITP Phase 2 continues, with data expected in the coming months. — Fierce Biotech
- FDA accepted BridgeBio's NDA for oral infigratinib in children with achondroplasia under priority review, with a 4 February 2027 PDUFA date, on PROPEL 3 data showing a 2.10 cm/year gain in annualized height velocity versus placebo. — PR
- NRC draft guide DG-8070 would assess patient-release radiation per full regimen, which puts a six-dose Pluvicto course (44.4 GBq) above the 41 GBq threshold and could push community sites, which deliver more than half of doses, out of the radioligand. — Fierce Pharma
- A dark-money-style group pushing drug-pricing reform has funded Harvard research and a survey by a Trump pollster while declining to name its backers. — Endpoints
Deal Flow
| BioBucks 2026 Deal Trackers • Updated weekly ⬇️
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M&A / BD&L
- No notable M&A or BD&L in the last 24 hours.
VC / Private Financings
- KymaThera closed an $80M Series B led by Alta Partners, with participation from Venrock, Foresite Capital, J. Wood Capital and others, to advance PI3Kα inhibitor K-1728 into Phase 1 in 4Q26. — PR
- RougeTx, a Leiden University Medical Center spinout, launched with a $58M Series A for RTX-001 in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia; co-led by BioGeneration Ventures, Angelini Ventures and Kurma Partners, joined by Epidarex, Vesalius Biocapital, ROM Utrecht Region and p53 Invest. — Fierce Biotech
IPOs / Follow-Ons
- Vaxcyte (PCVX) priced $1B: 7.41M shares at $64.00 plus pre-funded warrants ($500M), and $500M of 1.50% converts due 2032, convertible at ~$89.60 (40% premium); Jefferies, Leerink, BofA, Evercore, Goldman and Guggenheim, closing 9 October. — PR
- Spyre priced a $350.0M follow-on at $85.00 per share, with an additional 30-day option for roughly $52.5M of stock. — PR
- TRexBio set IPO terms of 8.3M shares at $14–16 (~$111M) for TNFR2 agonist TRB-061, in Phase 1 for atopic dermatitis; Retension set 3.3M shares at $11–13 (~$34M) for Phase 2b hypertension drug RTN-001; Lycia filed for antibody degrader LCA-0061, in Phase 1 for food allergy. — Fierce Biotech
Academic Corner - High-throughput metabolic engineering in mammalian cells showed a multiplexed strategy that screens millions of combinatorial solutions in one experiment. — Nature Biotech
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