The palms of our hands and the bottoms of our feet aren’t the flashiest body parts, but they have a secret superpower that we don’t often appreciate—the ability to bear weight.

Merck & Co.’s long-running effort to land a punch on small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has racked up a small victory. The drugmaker’s Daiichi Sankyo-partnered antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) ifinatamab deruxtecan (I-DXd) showed promise in the setting, offering encouragement as a late-stage trial progresses.

The orthopedic robotics developer Think Surgical has collected its third FDA clearance in as many months, with a specialized version of its knee replacement system designed to be paired with an implant from Zimmer Biomet.

Terns Pharmaceuticals’ decision to drop its liver disease ambitions may yet pay off, after the biotech posted phase 1 data showing one of its other candidates induced 5% weight loss in a month.

AstraZeneca executives say they are “not worried” that the failure of tozorakimab in a phase 2 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) trial will throw their plans for the anti-IL-33 monoclonal antibody off track.

The FDA is amplifying a recall from Medtronic over camera-equipped laryngoscopes containing battery packs that may overheat or explode under certain circumstances.

Five months after signing off on Utility Therapeutics’ Pivya as the first new treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTIs) in more than two decades, the FDA is weighing the pros and cons of another oral treatment in the indication.

In a year that has already seen Connect Biopharma walk away from a Pfizer collaboration and halt its preclinical work, the biotech is now in the process of “significantly reducing” its presence in China.

The bacterium Clostridioides difficile is one of the most common infections picked up in hospitals, and, even once it’s cleared from the body, patients have a 1 in 6 chance of catching it again within a couple of months. It also often resists antibiotic treatment, leaving it free to infect the colon and cause diarrhea, nausea, fever and, in severe cases, sepsis and death.

Astellas Pharma has cut the ribbon on a new life sciences center in Massachusetts that will house 400 team members and an incubator lab.