Novartis has agreed to license and develop Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals’ preclinical stage small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapy ARO-SNCA, a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies, plus additional targets. Two stories this week covered very different types of cell reprogramming techniques for therapy development. The first approach may overcome the time delays and safety risks of traditional immunotherapies, especially for patients with aggressive, late-stage disease. Meanwhile, electrical stimulation of macrophages could represent a new therapy to boost the body’s own repair processes in a range of injury and disease situations. Finally, Eli Lilly saw its shares climb 5% this past week after announcing that its history-making oral obesity candidate, orforglipron, aced the Phase III ATTAIN-2 trial.
Listed below are links to the GEN stories referenced in this episode of Touching Base:
The State of Biotech Summit Registration
Novartis Commits Up to $2.2B toward Developing Arrowhead siRNA Therapy
Alex Philippidis, GEN Edge, September 2, 2025
Off-the-Shelf Immunotherapy Demonstrates Multipronged Attack Against Cancer
GEN, August 29, 2025
Human Macrophages “Reprogrammed” by Electrical Stimulation to Encourage Faster Healing
GEN, September 2, 2025
StockWatch: Analysts See $10B+ in Sales for Lilly Oral GLP-1
Alex Philippidis, GEN Edge, September 1, 2025
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