XtalPi-Backed Viva-Thera Nominates HIV-1 MPER PCC in Seven Months

AbbVie announced that the European Commission has approved its immunology drug Rinvoq, also known as upadacitinib, for the treatment of active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis in patients aged two years and older who have had an inadequate response or intolerance to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. The approval marks the 11th indication for Rinvoq in the European Union, where it can be used either as monotherapy or in combination with methotrexate, and follows the drug's existing United States approval for the same condition. The decision was supported by the open-label phase I SELECT-YOUTH study, in which 66.4% of patients achieved an ACR Pediatric 70 response at week 12, rising to 79.5% by week 48, while clinical remission increased from 23% to 43.4% over the same period. Rinvoq is a key growth driver for AbbVie, with sales up 22.2% year over year to $4.64 billion in the first half of 2026 and expected revenues of around $10.2 billion for the full year. Separately, AbbVie announced a multi-year collaboration with Iambic to accelerate discovery of small-molecule therapies in immunology, neuroscience and oncology, using Iambic's AI-powered platform including its next-generation Enchant v3 model, with Iambic receiving an upfront payment plus milestone payments and tiered royalties on net sales.

The AI Structural Biology Network, powered by Apheris, launched AISB Bind, a federated initiative in which AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Johnson & Johnson will collaboratively train an AI model to predict how small molecules bind to protein targets for virtual screening and lead optimization. The new initiative extends the network's first effort, which focused on protein-ligand structure prediction, where a co-folding model fine-tuned across more than 20,000 proprietary structures from active drug-discovery programs raised the share of high-quality predictions from 36% to 52%, outperforming public models and any model fine-tuned on a single partner's data alone. In AISB Bind, the four founding partners contribute three complementary types of data: experimentally determined structures, quantitative affinity and potency measurements, and high-throughput screening activity data, the last adding a large body of confirmed non-binders that is rarely available at industrial scale. Training runs through federated learning, so each partner's proprietary data stays within its own secure environment, with Apheris hosting the network and running the training and each partner receiving the resulting model to run and further tailor internally. Federated training begins in September 2026, with final models expected in early 2027, powered by the infrastructure of Apheris's technology partner, Amazon Web Services.

Twist Bioscience Corporation confirmed on September 16 a strategic partnership with Lilly TuneLab, a platform created by Eli Lilly and Company, under which Twist will provide antibody characterization data services. Twist will also supply data to support AbLab, an antibody developability prediction model, along with high-throughput wet-lab data used to train and improve those models. Through the agreement, TuneLab users will be able to order Twist's antibody services using preferred Twist protocols, generating wet-lab data that can support AI-enabled antibody discovery. The companies did not disclose a minimum purchase commitment, contract value, or specific revenue guidance, and the announcement includes no rights to Lilly drug candidates, milestone payments, or royalties, so the near-term financial impact depends on how much TuneLab users ultimately purchase Twist's services. According to Insider Monkey's database, the number of hedge funds holding Twist rose to 42 in the second quarter from 30 in the first quarter, with Ark Investment Management cutting its position by 29% to $468.1 million, Farallon Capital raising its stake by 50% to $219.79 million, and DE Shaw increasing its position by 2,442% to $121.98 million, while short interest fell to 12.07 million shares as of August 31 from 14.08 million as of July 31 but remained elevated at approximately 18.20%.