The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has opened a consultation on letting schools in England buy and hold spare adrenaline nasal sprays for anaphylaxis emergencies, alongside the auto injectors they may already stock. Adrenaline nasal spray was authorised in July 2025. The proposal would amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 so schools could hold the spray without a prescription for a named pupil, use it for any pupil known to be at risk, and choose between spray, auto injector, or both. School held supplies remain a backup, not a replacement for pupils carrying their own medication.
Zealand Pharma reported clean Phase 1 multiple ascending dose results for ZP9830, its oral Kv1.3 ion channel blocker, in 32 healthy volunteers over four weeks of dosing: no serious or severe adverse events, no dose limiting safety findings, and all treatment emergent events mild. Kv1.3 blockade is a long pursued route to suppressing effector memory T cells without broad immunosuppression. Zealand has started a Phase 1b trial in plaque psoriasis and plans a Phase 2 in a second autoimmune disease in the first half of 2027. A safety only readout in healthy volunteers proves tolerability, not efficacy; the psoriasis trial is the first real test.
Roche used the Monday before ESMO to preview the three data packages it will present in Madrid: divarasib, its KRAS G12C inhibitor, which the company says worked better than current first generation KRAS G12C treatments in advanced lung cancer; giredestrant, its oral breast cancer pill, which improved outcomes without hurting quality of life; and Tam-Peli, a next generation antibody drug conjugate with strong results in several hard to treat tumours. Reuters reported the preview without figures, and the numbers themselves are the ESMO presentations, so this is a calendar marker, not a readout.
Diasome is finalising Phase 3 plans for its hepatocyte directed insulin lispro (HDV-L) in type 1 diabetes, Genetic Engineering News reported, after the Phase 2b OPTI-2 trial showed non inferior A1C reduction against standard insulin lispro in 226 adults, with five severe hypoglycaemic events on lispro against zero on HDV-L (p=0.0598). The company, which has raised about $85 million and is preparing a Series D, still has to agree the pivotal program with the FDA, and the hypoglycaemia separation that carries its case was not formally significant. One to watch, not yet a result.
Referenced, not repeated: David Sabatini gave his first interview since the jury verdict published in this site’s October 17 edition, telling STAT the litigation years were the hardest of his life. The verdict itself, a $6 million award, is unchanged and is not re reported here. Also in financings reported October 19 by pharmaphorum alongside the Nouscom round: Boston based Soufflé Therapeutics raised a $135 million Series B to take three oligonucleotide delivery programs, in muscular dystrophy, heart failure and muscle disorders, into clinical trials.