Eledon Pharmaceuticals Inc

Eledon Pharmaceuticals traded higher on Tuesday after updating long-term data from a mid-stage trial of its lead candidate tegoprubart and announcing that the FDA granted the drug Fast Track designation. Citing data from its Phase 2 BESTOW trial, the California-based biotech said the antibody therapy maintained a higher kidney function with a statistically significant effect based on the average estimated glomerular filtration rate, a measure of kidney graft function. The latest readout, presented at the International Congress of the Transplantation Society in Australia, set tegoprubart's eGFR advantage at approximately 13 mL/min/1.73 m² through 24 months, compared with an average eGFR of about 69 mL/min/1.73 m² in a 12-month analysis in November. On safety, the company said there were no rejections in the tegoprubart arm beyond six months post-transplant, compared with seven in the tacrolimus arm. Eledon added that it remains on track to begin its Phase 3 LEGACY trial for tegoprubart in kidney transplantation in Q4 2026.

This week brought a mix of FDA and EU approvals, layoffs, acquisitions, and clinical trial updates across the biotech sector. Ionis Pharmaceuticals secured FDA approval for TRYNGOLZA as an adjunct therapy for severe hypertriglyceridemia, while Merck received European Commission approval for Keytruda in combination with Padcev as a neoadjuvant treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Gilead's Trodelvy was cleared by the FDA for first-line metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, and Pfizer's IBRANCE won expanded approval for HR+/HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. Natera gained Japanese approval for its Signatera MRD test in colorectal cancer, and AbbVie's MAVIRET was approved in the EU for both acute and chronic Hepatitis C. Achieve Life Sciences received an FDA Complete Response Letter for its Cytisinicline NDA due to manufacturing deficiencies, though no efficacy or safety issues were raised. ADC Therapeutics announced a 17% workforce reduction as part of a strategic reorganization to focus on its ZYNLONTA lymphoma franchise. In dealmaking, Merck KGaA agreed to acquire Bio-Techne for $73 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of $11.3 billion, while Ionis inked a licensing deal with Recordati for Zilganersen, an investigational therapy for Alexander disease. Passage Bio and Remix Therapeutics entered an all-stock merger agreement, and Boundless Bio and Serapha Bio also announced an all-stock merger. On the clinical front, IMUNON's Phase 3 OVATION 3 trial passed a safety review, Takeda's Zasocitinib showed superiority over Deucravacitinib in a Phase 3 psoriasis study, and Eledon reported positive long-term kidney transplant data for Tegoprubart. However, Pfizer's Sigvotatug vedotin missed its primary overall survival endpoint in a Phase 3 non-small cell lung cancer study, and MapLight's ML-004 failed to meet its primary endpoint in autism spectrum disorder, though it showed an irritability signal in adolescents. Definium Therapeutics reported positive Phase 3 results for DT120 ODT in major depressive disorder.

Natera and Eledon Pharmaceuticals have entered a strategic partnership to incorporate Natera's Prospera kidney transplant assessment test into Eledon's planned Phase 3 clinical trial of tegoprubart, an investigational therapy to prevent organ rejection in kidney transplantation. Under the agreement, Prospera will serve as the exclusive donor-derived cell-free DNA monitoring assay for the study, which is expected to enroll approximately 600 kidney transplant recipients across more than 100 transplant centers globally and is set to begin in late 2026. The trial will use longitudinal Prospera monitoring as a surveillance tool, marking the first time the test is used in a large-scale therapeutic transplant study. Prospera employs a two-threshold algorithm measuring both the relative fraction and total amount of donor-derived cell-free DNA to detect early signs of allograft injury.