Switzerland

Novartis entered a licensing and option agreement with China-based Abogen Biosciences, giving the Swiss pharma giant exclusive worldwide rights to Abogen's lead candidate ABO2203 and options to license additional programs built on Abogen's proprietary RNA platform. Under the agreement, Abogen will receive an upfront payment of $575 million and is eligible to receive up to approximately $7.2 billion in potential milestone payments if all options covering additional programs are exercised and the specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones are achieved, plus royalties on future product sales. ABO2203 is an investigational messenger RNA-encoded CD19xCD3 T-cell engager being developed for autoimmune diseases, designed to reset B cells by directing endogenous production of T-cell engagers in vivo. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory clearances. The deal comes as Novartis faces generic competition for Entresto and Promacta and back-to-back pipeline setbacks, including the late-stage failure of pelacarsen and the HARBOR study of del-desiran in myotonic dystrophy type 1.

J.P. Morgan on Monday added Givaudan to its Positive Catalyst Watch ahead of the company's Oct. 13 third-quarter results, expecting organic sales growth of 6.7%, above consensus of about 5%. The broker, which rates Givaudan overweight, said the results could prompt upward revisions to its 2026 and 2027 sales and margin forecasts, and it expects like-for-like sales growth of 5.0% in 2026 and 5.6% in 2027, versus consensus of 4.2% and 4.7%. For the third quarter, the bank forecasts organic sales growth of 6.7%, up from 4.3% in the second quarter, driven mainly by 6.2% volume growth, with pricing growth of 0.5% and a 2026 EBIT margin of 24.1%, slightly above consensus of 23.8%. J.P. Morgan expects 2026 earnings per share of CHF 135.1 and 2027 EPS of CHF 141.8, up from CHF 133 and CHF 139 in its forecasts a month ago, and it sees Givaudan as the fastest-growing company among its ingredients peers in the second half of 2026. Across the ingredients sector, the bank expects third-quarter like-for-like growth of 5.2%, forecasting 3.7% for Kerry and 4.8% for Symrise against 6.7% for Givaudan, while more broadly it expects European consumer staples companies to deliver upside surprises in third-quarter sales and profit forecasts.

Alliance Foundation Trials and Natera announced the launch of AFT-70 NAVIGATE, a global randomized phase III trial evaluating an MRD-guided treatment strategy for patients with intermediate and high-risk ER-positive/HER2-negative early breast cancer. The trial is sponsored and led by AFT, with collaboration and co-funding from Natera and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. It pairs giredestrant, Genentech's investigational next-generation oral selective estrogen receptor degrader, with longitudinal Signatera Genome MRD monitoring to identify patients who may benefit from escalation with a CDK4/6 inhibitor. AFT expects to enroll more than 2,000 patients with stage II-III disease at approximately 200 sites across the U.S. and internationally, with the primary endpoint of non-inferiority in 4-year distant recurrence-free survival. Giredestrant was selected based on the phase III lidERA trial, which showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in invasive disease-free survival versus standard endocrine monotherapy, while Signatera was chosen for its evidence in this setting and its Genome-based technology reporting analytical sensitivity below 1 ppm.

A Delaware federal judge on Monday rejected requests from Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna to dismiss lawsuits filed by Bayer's Monsanto unit over their use of US Patent No. 7,741,118, a patent related to mRNA technology, with Judge William Bryson saying the companies failed to prove the patent was invalid or not infringed by their COVID-19 vaccines. Sanofi agreed to a deal worth up to $8B, including $1B upfront, with Regeneron to jointly develop four long-acting immunology therapies, led by the clinical-stage IL-13 monoclonal antibody REGN20423. China's Abogen Biosciences signed a licensing and option agreement with Novartis worth up to $7.8B, comprising a $575 million upfront payment and up to approximately $7.2 billion in potential milestone payments if all options on all programs are exercised, covering an exclusive worldwide license to Abogen's lead asset ABO2203. Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals agreed to license global rights to its experimental obesity drug HRS-1596 to Novo Nordisk in a deal worth up to $2.6B, with $300M upfront and the transaction expected to close in Q4 2026. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Health Care Sector Index slipped 2.66% for the week, with Incyte down 6.93% and Regeneron down 6.71% among the top decliners, while McKesson rose 4.11% and Cardinal Health gained 3.67%.

UBS said in a research report that global oil demand is likely to keep rising into the 2030s as population growth, urbanization and higher living standards in emerging markets offset slower fuel consumption from electric vehicles and efficiency gains. Global oil consumption reached a record 105 million barrels per day in 2025, equivalent to roughly 17 billion litres a day, or about two litres per person globally. UBS said transportation accounts for slightly more than half of demand, while petrochemicals, industry, buildings and power generation make up much of the remainder, with road transport alone accounting for less than half of global oil demand, passenger vehicles 27% and road freight 18%, aviation 7%, shipping 4%, rail and waterways 2%, petrochemicals 15% and other industrial uses 13%. The bank said India is increasingly positioned to take over from China as a major driver of global oil-demand growth, with India's oil consumption at about 0.6 litres per person per day versus around 1.9 litres in China, and it flagged significant growth potential in India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria as incomes rise and urbanization accelerates. UBS expects electric vehicles and improving fuel efficiency to eventually curb gasoline and diesel demand, with those fuels likely to peak sometime over the next decade, but said most growth is likely to come from sectors outside road transportation, particularly petrochemical feedstocks such as naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas and ethane, alongside rising jet-fuel consumption. The report also cautioned that oil consumption figures can be distorted in countries with large petrochemical industries or major transportation hubs, citing Singapore's exceptionally high per-capita consumption because of its role as a global marine-fuel bunkering centre and aviation hub.

Julius Baer said on Friday it would buy back up to 600 million Swiss francs of its own shares, as the Swiss wealth manager seeks to move past regulatory scrutiny and legacy issues that have weighed on the business. The board approved the buyback following regulatory approval and in light of the group's strong capital position, with the programme expected to start in the coming weeks and be completed within a year, subject to market conditions. The shares will be repurchased through a second trading line on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The bank also revised its capital distribution policy, keeping its dividend payout target at 40% to 60% of IFRS net profit attributable to shareholders and aiming for a progressive dividend per share barring exceptional circumstances, while maintaining its target common equity tier 1 capital ratio at 15%. The buyback follows Swiss regulator FINMA's conclusion earlier this week of a long-running enforcement case into the bank's risk management and anti-money-laundering controls, which found serious breaches linked to a private-debt exposure and relationships with two Russian politically exposed persons. Chairman Noel Quinn said management had made progress in addressing the legacy issues and maintained dialogue with regulators.

Simply Wall St reports that the fair value estimate for Julius Baer Gruppe has been raised to CHF 75.21 from CHF 72.94, following the closure of the FINMA enforcement case. Morgan Stanley moved Julius Baer to Equal Weight from Underweight and raised its target to CHF 81 from CHF 67, directly linking the shift to the end of FINMA enforcement, which it sees as an important reduction in perceived regulatory risk. JPMorgan and Citi both kept positive ratings while lifting their targets into the CHF high 70s to low 80s range, with JPMorgan at CHF 80, Citi at CHF 80.50 and Deutsche Bank at CHF 81. The updated model reduced the revenue growth assumption to 5.53% from 9.50%, adjusted the net profit margin to 27.59% from 26.85%, shifted the future P/E multiple to 14.78x from 14.48x, and changed the discount rate to 8.99% from 9.02%. The article also notes a CHF 130m savings target tied to cost efficiency and digital transformation efforts.

Roche Holding received FDA acceptance of its New Drug Application for fenebrutinib in multiple sclerosis under priority review. The filing covers fenebrutinib as an oral BTK inhibitor for both relapsing and primary progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. If approved, fenebrutinib could become the first high efficacy oral BTK inhibitor targeting both relapse control and disability progression in MS, adding an oral, CNS penetrant option alongside Ocrevus in Roche's neurology offering. Roche Holding is a CHF279.4 billion pharmaceuticals and diagnostics group, and the milestone reinforces the view that late stage assets like fenebrutinib can help offset ongoing loss of exclusivity and pricing pressure. The key signpost now is the FDA's priority review timeline for fenebrutinib, including the final decision date and any label details regulators set, with three Phase III trials supporting the filing.

WISeKey ADS reported a first-half GAAP loss of $0.87 per share on revenue of $11.43 million, up 116.1% year over year. Gross profit rose 192% to $5.5 million from $1.9 million in the first half of 2025, while gross margin expanded to approximately 48% from 35%. The company reaffirmed its fiscal 2026 outlook, expecting revenue growth of 50% to 100% year over year.

Roche announced that detailed results from the phase III evERA Breast Cancer study, showing investigational giredestrant plus everolimus significantly improved progression-free survival versus standard endocrine therapy plus everolimus, were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In the ESR1-mutated population, median PFS was 10.0 months with the giredestrant combination compared with 5.5 months in the comparator arm, a stratified hazard ratio of 0.38, while in the intent-to-treat population median PFS was 8.8 months versus 5.5 months, a hazard ratio of 0.56, corresponding to a 44% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death in the ITT population and 62% in the ESR1-mutated population. Overall survival data were immature but showed a clear positive trend in both the ITT population, with a hazard ratio of 0.69, and the ESR1-mutated population, with a hazard ratio of 0.62, and adverse events were manageable with no unexpected safety findings, including no photopsia and low rates of bradycardia. Based on these data, the US Food and Drug Administration accepted Roche's New Drug Application for giredestrant in combination with everolimus for ER-positive, HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, with a decision expected by 18 December 2026, and also accepted a Priority Review NDA for giredestrant as adjuvant treatment in early breast cancer based on the lidERA results, with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date of 30 November 2026. evERA was the first positive phase III readout for giredestrant, followed by the lidERA Breast Cancer study in the early-stage setting, and additional analyses presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting showed the combination prolongs PFS2 and chemotherapy-free survival compared with standard endocrine therapy.

Open USD launched on Ethereum, Solana, Coinbase's Base, and the Stripe-backed Tempo blockchain on September 23, 2026, eliminating minting and burning fees and sharing reserve revenue directly with distribution partners. The stablecoin's equity-for-usage model allocates the overwhelming majority of Open Standard's equity over the next four to five years tied to supply growth and transaction activity, with five founding partners — Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe, and Visa — each receiving an equal initial equity stake backed by $1 billion in committed liquidity. Partners have grown from 140 at the June announcement to over 200 at launch, including global banks UBS, DBS, and ANZ. Coinbase access opens October 1, bringing the largest US exchange into the distribution network, while the UK FCA crypto gateway opened for applications on September 30 and the US GENIUS Act remains stalled after missing its July 2026 deadline. OUSD enters a $300 billion market dominated by Tether and Circle, with Tempo's Dan Romero projecting $10 billion in volume during 2027 and potentially $100 billion over several years. Execution risks persist, as Samsung and other companies publicly disputed their participation following the June announcement, and managing over 200 entities from global banks to crypto-native protocols like Aave and Uniswap remains a logistical and political challenge.

Morgan Stanley upgraded Swiss private bank Julius Baer to equal-weight from underweight and raised its price target to CHF 81 from CHF 67 after Swiss regulator FINMA ended enforcement action against the bank over anti-money laundering breaches. Morgan Stanley said it was not moving to overweight as it does not expect client flows to improve in the second half of 2026 and sees 2027 as an investment year as Julius Baer transitions to a new core banking system. FINMA has relaxed measures restricting Julius Baer's entry into new business relationships with politically exposed persons from high-risk countries and has partially or fully lifted measures covering capital and liquidity, though the regulator will continue to require reporting on risk, error and compliance culture through 2032, and FINMA approval remains necessary for dividends and share buybacks. Morgan Stanley moved its valuation basis to 2028 earnings from 2027 and cut its cost of equity assumption to 10.5% from 11%, putting the new price target at 12 times estimated 2028 earnings. Underlying earnings per share are now forecast at CHF 6.05 for 2026, CHF 6.20 for 2027 and CHF 6.78 for 2028, compared with previous estimates of CHF 6.14, CHF 6.15 and CHF 6.90, respectively, while Morgan Stanley assumes CHF 100 million of buybacks for the remainder of 2026 and CHF 600 million annually in 2027 and 2028.

TIB MOLBIOL, a subsidiary of Roche Diagnostics, has launched the LightMix Newborn TREC/SMN1/HBB kit, an in vitro diagnostic test for newborn screening in countries accepting the CE mark. The test simultaneously screens for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease, and Sickle Cell Disease, and provides private and academic hospital laboratories with a ready-to-use solution that integrates into existing workflows on established LightCycler systems. Marcus Droege, CEO of TIB MOLBIOL, said catching these diseases before symptoms appear is the difference between a child thriving or facing severe, lifelong disability, and that expanding the company's compliant newborn screening tools across Europe helps laboratories transition to high-precision solutions. Early diagnosis of SMA allows clinicians to immediately initiate targeted therapies that may halt severe nerve damage and prevent permanent disability, while early detection of SCD enables preventive penicillin and specialised immunisations that can drastically lower infant mortality, and early detection of SCID allows for lifesaving treatments such as bone marrow transplants before dangerous infections occur.

Galderma is presenting new three-year data from the ARCADIA long-term extension study showing that Nemluvio, also known as nemolizumab, is well-tolerated and delivers sustained improvements in skin lesions, itch, sleep disturbance and quality of life in adults and adolescents with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. The findings will be shared in an oral presentation at the 2026 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress in Vienna on Thursday, October 1, by ARCADIA investigator Dr. Matthias Augustin. At Week 152, up to 91% of patients achieved at least 75% improvement in eczema severity, up to 75% achieved at least 90% improvement, up to 67% achieved clear or almost clear skin, up to 88% achieved clinically meaningful itch relief and up to 92% reported clinically meaningful improvements in dermatology-related quality of life, with no new safety signals identified. Lead investigator Professor Jonathan Silverberg of George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences said the improvements were not only achieved but sustained over time, while Galderma global program head Christophe Piketty said the data underscore the company's commitment to addressing patients' long-term needs. Additional EADV 2026 presentations include a post-hoc analysis concluding Nemluvio has a favorable cutaneous safety profile over two years in atopic dermatitis and prurigo nodularis, and analyses identifying clinically meaningful sleep-disturbance improvements linked to itch intensity and skin lesion severity. Nemluvio, the first approved monoclonal antibody targeting IL-31 signaling, was initially developed by Chugai Pharmaceutical and is approved for both moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis and prurigo nodularis in more than 40 countries.

Cintas Corporation reported record quarterly revenue of $3.01 billion, up 10.9%, with organic growth accelerating to 8.9%, adjusted EPS rising 15.8% to $1.39, and adjusted operating margin reaching 23.6%. The company raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $12.15 billion-$12.27 billion and adjusted EPS guidance to $5.45-$5.54. Truist raised its price target to $230 from $225 with a Buy rating, and UBS raised its target to $235 from $230, though the shares initially fell about 3%. First Aid and Safety posted organic growth of 14.2% while Uniform Rental and Facility Services grew 8%, and gross margin hit an all-time high of 51.5%, up 120 basis points. Cintas is targeting approximately $375 million of operating cost synergies from its $5.5 billion UniFirst acquisition, which it expects to close before the end of calendar 2026 and which is excluded from the fiscal 2027 guidance.

The commercialization of AI-driven drug development continues to move forward. Insilico Medicine announced a partnership to build a generative biology foundation model focused on biologic design and target optimization. The 2026 European Society for Medical Oncology annual meeting will open from October 23 to 27, featuring 28 breakthrough clinical studies led by or deeply involving China, of which 4 were selected for oral presentation in the plenary session, accounting for one-third of the total. In the pharmaceutical segment, 29 late-breaking abstract trial drugs were originally developed or co-developed by domestic Chinese pharmaceutical companies, covering multiple frontier areas including antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, and EGFR-TKI-resistant non-small cell lung cancer. Guosheng Securities noted that the radiopharmaceutical sector recently saw two major deals: Telix acquired ITM for 1.65 billion US dollars, and Borui Chuanghe signed a collaboration with Novartis worth up to 900 million US dollars. Meanwhile, Ionis' oligonucleotide therapy Ulefnersen met its primary endpoint in a Phase III study for FUS-ALS, providing the first effective treatment option for this rare disease. As of August 31, 2026, the top ten weighted stocks in the SSE STAR Market Biomedical Index accounted for 51.54% of the total, namely United Imaging Healthcare, BeiGene, Allist Pharmaceuticals, Baili Tianheng, Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals, RemeGen, iRay Technology, Huitai Medical, Junshi Biosciences, and MGI Tech.

Novartis AG announced on September 18 that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has adopted a positive opinion recommending marketing authorization for Cosentyx, or secukinumab, to treat polymyalgia rheumatica in adults who respond inadequately to steroids or relapse during tapering. The European Commission is expected to issue a final decision within two months, and if approved, Cosentyx would become the first IL-17A inhibitor licensed in Europe for polymyalgia rheumatica, expanding its multi-billion-dollar immunology franchise into a new rheumatologic indication with high unmet demand. The recommendation reinforces Novartis's strategy of driving top-line growth through priority brands, a group that also includes Kisqali, up 43 percent at constant currencies in the second quarter of 2026, Kesimpta, up 32 percent, and Scemblix, up 89 percent. In that quarter Novartis reported $14.4 billion in net sales, up 3 percent in US dollars, a core operating income margin of 41.2 percent, and $5.6 billion in free cash flow, with $8.9 billion in the first half of 2026, supporting its $10 billion share buyback program. Generic competition remains a drag, subtracting 14 percentage points from second-quarter 2026 net sales growth and contributing to a 2 percent decline in operating income, while net debt rose to $39.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, from $21.9 billion at year-end 2025, largely on $15.3 billion in net cash outflows for M&A and asset acquisitions and $3.1 billion in treasury share transactions. The CHMP recommendation provides a clear regulatory milestone that aligns with management's reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance.

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, broke ground on a $750 million expansion of its manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, advancing plans announced in August to increase capacity for advanced drug delivery devices and strengthen United States manufacturing. The expansion adds 211,000 square feet to the site, doubling its size, with commercial operations planned to begin in 2031. Once operational, the facility will add device fill-finish capabilities, including manufacturing of combination products, to Genentech's U.S. manufacturing network, with flexible high- and low-volume filling designed to produce medicines across oncology, neurology and immunology. The expansion will create approximately 250 high-wage manufacturing jobs pairing traditional manufacturing expertise with digital skills in AI, automation and robotics, while construction supports approximately 200 additional construction jobs. The project is part of Roche and Genentech's investment commitment in U.S. manufacturing and R&D and builds on recent manufacturing and investment milestones in Holly Springs, North Carolina and Boston, Massachusetts; Roche and Genentech have approximately 25,000 employees in the U.S., with 15 R&D centers and 13 manufacturing sites.

Roche's experimental obesity drug enicepatide helped overweight or obese patients with type 2 diabetes improve blood sugar control while losing an average of 15.5% of their body weight in a mid-stage trial, adding another potentially important asset to the company's effort to challenge obesity-market leaders Eli Lilly and Company and Novo Nordisk A/S. In the 447-patient study, patients receiving the highest 24-milligram dose experienced significant reductions in HbA1c at 48 weeks, meeting the study's two main goals, and Roche said approximately 62% of patients achieved HbA1c levels below 5.7%, putting their blood sugar into the non-diabetic range. The findings follow a separate mid-stage result reported in June in which enicepatide helped overweight or obese patients without diabetes lose 22.7% of their body weight; Roche said the two weight-loss figures should not be directly compared because they come from separate trials involving different patient populations. Roche plans to begin late-stage glycemic-control and cardiovascular-outcomes studies during the first half of 2027, though enicepatide remains an experimental drug and the latest results should not be treated as evidence of regulatory approval or eventual commercial success. Roche said around 2% of patients taking enicepatide in the 447-patient study discontinued treatment because of side effects, compared with none in the placebo group, with most gastrointestinal side effects described as mild to moderate, and the company is betting on next-generation therapies in an obesity market expected to exceed $100 billion in annual sales within the next decade, where AstraZeneca and Amgen are among the large drugmakers also racing to break in.

Roche Holding announced new R&D alliances focused on AI-powered therapeutics and metabolic disease programs in late September 2026. The group signed a research partnership with Earendil Labs to apply AI to bispecific antibody cancer therapies across multiple tumor types, and agreed a collaboration with Atavistik Bio to pursue allosteric small molecules for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic conditions. Enicepatide, also known as CT-388, reported positive Phase 2 results in type 2 diabetes and obesity, highlighting Roche's GLP-1/GIP pipeline ambitions. The company's late stage pipeline includes 10 new molecular entities moving into Phase III and the potential launch of up to 19 medicines by the end of the decade, and the full story points toward a CHF370 fair value for Roche Holding. Analysts still flag execution and pricing pressure, especially in China and in obesity where Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are strong competitors.