Astellas Pharma Inc.

Vir Biotechnology announced that top-line data from its ECLIPSE 1 study in hepatitis delta will be reported in the fourth quarter of 2026, with readouts from ECLIPSE 2 and ECLIPSE 3 following in the first quarter of 2027. The company completed enrollment in ECLIPSE 2 during the second quarter and has now finished enrollment across all three registrational ECLIPSE studies. Vir ended the quarter with approximately $1.01 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments, an increase of $198.5 million, and projects its cash runway into the second half of 2028. License and collaboration revenue was $238.9 million, largely tied to an upfront payment from Astellas, and net income was $80.1 million. The company also highlighted progress in its oncology program, with VIR-5500 advancing through multiple expansion cohorts and a goal to initiate Phase III registrational trials next year.

Health Canada has approved Merck's Keytruda in combination with enfortumab vedotin for certain adults with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who are ineligible for cisplatin-containing chemotherapy. The regimen is used as neoadjuvant treatment before radical cystectomy and continued as adjuvant therapy after surgery. The approval was based on the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-905 trial, conducted with Pfizer and Astellas Pharma, which showed statistically significant improvements in event-free survival, overall survival, and pathological complete response rate versus surgery alone. Merck shares rose 1.22 percent to $129.56 on the NYSE.

Astellas Pharma reported a sharp rise in first-quarter profit attributable to owners of the parent, which climbed to 141.81 billion yen from 68.42 billion yen a year earlier. Revenue increased to 640.91 billion yen from 505.79 billion yen, while operating profit jumped to 184.51 billion yen from 94.65 billion yen. Earnings per share were 78.96 yen versus 38.11 yen last year. For fiscal 2027, the company expects revenue to grow 3.8% year over year to 2.22 trillion yen, operating profit to rise 3.2% to 395 billion yen, and profit attributable to owners of the parent to increase 2.9% to 300 billion yen, with basic earnings per share projected at 167.46 yen.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a broad slate of AI products, partnerships, and customer deployments at the company's Japan AI event in Tokyo on July 15. The announcements spanned physical AI, healthcare, financial services, quantum computing, automotive, manufacturing, and gaming, highlighting Nvidia's push to position its technologies at the forefront of Japan's next-generation AI infrastructure. In physical AI and robotics, Nvidia launched Cosmos 3 Edge for on-device vision reasoning, and companies including FANUC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kubota, NEC, SoftBank, Sony Group, and Yaskawa Electric plan to join the Nvidia Cosmos Coalition to develop open physical AI models. In healthcare, Astellas Pharma, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo, Ono Pharmaceutical, and Takeda Pharmaceutical are deploying Nvidia BioNeMo for AI-powered drug discovery, while Canon and Fujifilm introduced Nvidia-powered next-generation CT systems, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries is advancing AI-enabled surgical and hospital robots. In financial services, Mizuho Financial plans Japan's largest on-premises AI factory for banking, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial has deployed an AI factory through Japan Research Institute, and Rakuten Bank is developing AI transaction foundation models using Nvidia Agent Toolkit. Huang emphasized that the next wave of AI will be physical AI—robots, factories, vehicles, and industrial systems that can perceive, reason, and act in the real world—and said Japan's leadership in robotics, manufacturing, and precision engineering positions it to play a leading role in this transition.

Pfizer and Astellas Pharma announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved PADCEV plus Keytruda as neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment for adult patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, regardless of cisplatin eligibility. The approval, based on the Phase 3 EV-304 trial, marks the first platinum-free regimen approved for this indication. It expands on a November 2025 approval for cisplatin-ineligible patients. Separately, BofA lowered its Pfizer price target to $26 and HSBC downgraded the stock to Hold with a $28 target.

Merck reported positive Phase 3 results for tulisokibart, an anti-TL1A monoclonal antibody, in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis. The company also announced new FDA approvals for KEYTRUDA-based regimens in triple-negative breast cancer and muscle-invasive bladder cancer, while EU regulators cleared additional KEYTRUDA combinations in early-stage oncology settings. These developments reinforce Merck's focus on immunology and oncology, with tulisokibart representing efforts to build franchises beyond oncology and the new KEYTRUDA indications underlining partnerships with Gilead, Pfizer, and Astellas to entrench immunotherapy in earlier treatment lines. Investors will watch how widely tulisokibart is adopted and how new KEYTRUDA regimens fit into evolving treatment pathways, as well as upcoming label details, treatment guidelines, and competitive trial readouts.

The European Commission has approved Merck’s KEYTRUDA in combination with Padcev as the first PD-1 inhibitor plus antibody-drug conjugate regimen for adults with cisplatin-ineligible resectable muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The approval, which covers all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, is based on the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-905 trial, where the perioperative combination reduced the risk of event-free survival events by 60% and the risk of death by 50% versus surgery alone. The trial also showed a pathologic complete response rate of 57.1% for the combination compared with 8.6% for surgery alone. The regimen is given as neoadjuvant treatment before radical cystectomy and continued as adjuvant treatment after surgery. Merck conducted the study in collaboration with Pfizer and Astellas.

Sangamo Therapeutics has entered into two separate asset sale agreements with Eli Lilly and Astellas Pharma and simultaneously filed for voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization. Lilly will serve as stalking horse bidder for Sangamo's capsid delivery platform, zinc finger platform, modular integrase platform, and the prion disease program ST-506, while Astellas will serve as stalking horse bidder for the Fabry disease program isaralgagene civaparvovec, or ST-920. The court-supervised auction process is expected to include substantially all of Sangamo's assets, with certain other assets such as the ST-503 chronic neuropathic pain program and hemophilia A program giroctocogene fitelparvovec remaining available to interested bidders. Sangamo has secured a debtor-in-possession financing commitment from Northridge ATM, LLC to support ongoing operations during the proceedings. The company aims to maximize value for all stakeholders through the Chapter 11 process.

Astellas Pharma Inc. has returned 1.2% year-to-date, outperforming the broader Medical sector's average decline of 5.8%. The stock holds a Zacks Rank of 1, or Strong Buy, and its full-year earnings consensus estimate has risen 19.6% over the past quarter. Within the Medical - Drugs industry, which has lost 8.6% so far this year, Astellas is also performing better. Another industry peer, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, has gained 3.2% year-to-date and carries a Zacks Rank of 2, or Buy, with its current-year EPS estimate up 0.6% in three months.