Top Story Today
25 Years of Doubt Are Over: The First PROTAC Drug Just Got FDA Approval
The FDA approved vepdegestrant (brand name Veppanu), making it the first-ever PROTAC drug to reach patients. Unlike traditional drugs that block disease-causing proteins, PROTACs hijack the cell's own recycling system to destroy them entirely. Approved for ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer with ESR1 mutations, the drug cut progression risk by 43% versus fulvestrant in a head-to-head trial. The bigger story: every other protein degrader program in the industry just lost the asterisk that read "this drug class has never been approved." Dozens of degrader programs across oncology, immunology, and neurology now have a validated regulatory path.
Why it matters: The first PROTAC approval transforms targeted protein degradation from a theoretical platform into a proven drug class, unlocking regulatory confidence and investor appetite for dozens of degrader programs spanning cancer, autoimmune disease, and neurodegeneration.
Read more →Clinical Breakthroughs
Moderna's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Still Working After Five Years
Five-year data from the KEYNOTE-942 trial showed Moderna and Merck's custom mRNA cancer vaccine cut melanoma recurrence risk by 49% when added to Keytruda. Even more striking: distant metastases (the kind that kill) dropped 59%. The phase 3 trial, INTerpath-001, is fully enrolled, with an interim readout expected this year. No other personalized cancer vaccine is close to that milestone.
Read more →More Than Half of Metastatic Lung Cancer Patients Still Progression-Free at 7 Years
Pfizer's lorlatinib posted a number that shouldn't exist in metastatic lung cancer: 55% of ALK-positive patients remained progression-free after seven years. Brain metastases, the disease's cruelest trick, showed no new cases of progression after more than 30 months of treatment. Oncologists are cautiously whispering the word "cure" for a cancer that used to be measured in months.
Read more →One Gene-Editing Infusion Slashed Cholesterol 62%, Lasting Over a Year
Verve Therapeutics' VERVE-102 knocked down PCSK9 protein by 88% and cut LDL cholesterol by 62% after a single IV infusion, rivaling drugs patients currently take for life. Crucially, the safety profile was clean after an earlier version stumbled. Eli Lilly, which acquired Verve for up to $1.3 billion, is targeting phase 2 enrollment by year-end.
Read more →Regulatory & Vaccines
The Flu Shot Hasn't Changed in 80 Years. A Unanimous FDA Panel Just Greenlit the Upgrade.
An FDA advisory panel voted 9-0 to recommend Moderna's mFlusiva, the first mRNA flu vaccine, for adults 50 and older. It beat traditional egg-based shots by about 27% in a 40,800-person trial. Final FDA decision arrives August 5, and approval would give Moderna its fifth commercial respiratory product.
Read more →Merck's CAPVAXIVE Gets Pediatric Nod, Putting Pfizer's Prevnar on Notice
The FDA approved Merck's 21-valent pneumococcal vaccine for high-risk children aged 2 to 17, giving it a foothold in pediatrics that previously belonged entirely to Pfizer's Prevnar franchise. CAPVAXIVE covers eight serotypes its competitor can't reach, and Merck's pneumococcal revenue already topped $759 million in year one.
Read more →Merck's KEYTRUDA + WELIREG Combo Approved for Post-Surgery Kidney Cancer
The FDA greenlit the first checkpoint inhibitor plus HIF-2a inhibitor combination for adjuvant kidney cancer. In an 1,841-patient trial, KEYTRUDA plus WELIREG cut recurrence risk by 28% over KEYTRUDA alone, a rare case of a company beating its own blockbuster. Analysts see peak revenue potential north of $6 billion.
Read more →Reality Checks
Grail's Cancer Blood Test Found Tumors. It Couldn't Prove That Matters.
The NHS-Galleri trial of 140,000 people showed Grail's blood test detected cancer four times more often than standard screening. But the primary endpoint, reducing late-stage diagnoses, failed completely (p = 0.63). Stage IV cancers did dip by 14%, yet stage III rose to offset the gains. Experts called the results "presented far more positively than justified."
Read more →STAT Investigates a Decade of Unfulfilled Pancreatic Cancer Promises
A sweeping STAT News investigation details how billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has repeatedly claimed breakthroughs in pancreatic cancer without controlled trial evidence to back them up. His ImmunityBio program showed 6.3-month survival in a small study with no control group. The FDA recently called his promotional claims about Anktiva "false" and "misleading."
Read more →Deals & Funding
$180M Series A Bets a Selective Pill Can Crack IBD's Safety Problem
cAMPfield Therapeutics raised $180 million (one of the year's largest Series A rounds) to develop prifemilast, an oral PDE4B inhibitor for Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. The thesis: sniper-like enzyme selectivity could deliver efficacy without the nausea and GI side effects that plague existing options. Frazier Life Sciences led; Novo Holdings, RA Capital, and five other top-tier firms joined.
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