Biotech’s pullback, in charts. BioPharma Dive’s weekly chart package puts numbers on the XBI’s stalled rally: the index nearly reached $170 a share in August, more than doubling in 12 months, before disappointing readouts, rising rates and midterm-election jitters eroded gains, and Cantor Fitzgerald’s October 2 note says it has traded sideways for months. The more striking data point is deal mix: 26 privately held biotechs have been bought this year in deals with at least $50 million in guaranteed proceeds versus 21 public-company deals, and William Blair research puts the median startup acquisition at $1 billion in 2026, up from $496 million in 2023, with private M&A already outpacing the prior eight years combined. William Blair’s Michael Allwin attributes the surge to a backlog of well-funded private biotechs now armed with clinical data; RBC’s Brian Abrahams notes July-September is seasonally slow for M&A and a rebound in public deals could stabilize sentiment.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s has a distinct prodrome, Finnish study finds. A population-based case-control study from the University of Oulu and the University of Eastern Finland, published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia, found that people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s before age 65 accumulated a broad range of health problems in the five years before diagnosis, including depression, dizziness, headaches, traumatic brain injuries, epilepsy, cerebrovascular disorders, thyroid disease and heavy alcohol use, with tinnitus and hearing loss elevated six to ten years out. Strikingly, the classic cardiovascular risk factors were not elevated: high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia were no more common than in the 4,000-plus matched controls, suggesting early-onset disease involves at least partly different mechanisms than late-onset. The study covered 407 early-onset patients from Oulu and Kuopio university hospital memory clinics plus national registry data over 15 years; lead investigator Johanna Kruger cautions no single symptom predicts the disease, but the pattern could support earlier recognition of a condition whose diagnosis is often delayed by years.
Global trust in science has slipped below pre-pandemic levels. A global survey released October 10 found 72 percent of respondents express at least some trust in science, down from pandemic-era levels, with the sharpest erosion of confidence among people experiencing significant financial difficulty. The survey compared attitudes before, during and after the pandemic, and its authors warn the decline could complicate future public-health mandates and science communication to vulnerable populations.