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Good morning. Today, we look at the biggest biotech events to watch this quarter. And as my editor had to remind me (since I’m still in denial), we are indeed in the fourth quarter now.

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This story first appeared in The Readout newsletter. Sign up for The Readout and receive STAT’s award-winning biotech news delivered straight to your inbox. 

Good morning. It’s another busy news day, and I’m layering up at home to avoid turning the heater on. Fall is officially here.

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Good morning. If you’re following the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting that starts tomorrow, sign up for our ESMO in 30 Seconds newsletter. My colleague Drew Joseph is on the ground in Barcelona (and I’m very jealous of him).

Onto the biotech news of the day.

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On Sunday, a small biotech company called Summit Therapeutics won a remarkable victory, saying its experimental drug outperformed Merck’s Keytruda, the world’s best-selling drug, in non-small cell lung cancer, the disease that represents Keytruda’s biggest market.

By itself, Summit’s victory would be a dramatic story, although not an unheard of one in the unpredictable world of biotechnology. But it’s just the start. Because at the center of it is one of the industry’s most iconoclastic figures: Robert “Bob” Duggan, who became a billionaire after he bought up shares of another biotech company, Pharmacyclics, that was on the brink of failure, developed a breakthrough cancer drug, and sold the company to AbbVie for $21 billion.

Duggan, 80, is a living rebuke to a pharmaceutical industry self-image that is increasingly crafted in Cambridge, Mass. and San Francisco. Before Pharmacyclics, he had no drug industry experience, having worked in cookie stores and then surgical robots. He lacks a college degree, and is a practicing scientologist who told STAT in an interview that he reads the works of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard every day and who has in the past said he’d given the church more than $360 million. He speaks in long, dramatic arcs, often spelling out words, referencing their roots, or giving itemized lists.

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Guyana continues to take numerous steps to convince the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that the now six-year-old ban on catfish exports should be lifted, officials said Wednesday. Chief Fisheries Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, Denzil Roberts said Guyana’s relevant fisheries regulations and inspection manuals have been updated. US Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole ...

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Good morning and happy Friday. We discuss a new innovative immunotherapy, and we take a look at some of the earnings highlights yesterday.

FDA approves immunotherapy for soft-tissue cancer

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a T cell immunotherapy from Adaptimmune Therapeutics for a rare cancer that arises in the body’s soft tissues, extending the power of immunotherapies to difficult-to-reach sarcomas.

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Good morning! Before we get to biotech, check out STAT’s deep dive into how UnitedHealth mobilizes a massive network of physicians and milked the health care system for profit.

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Good morning. It’s been a challenging time for workers in the biopharma industry. We’ve seen companies announce layoffs one after another, and people online talk about how it seems increasingly difficult to secure a new job. Read our latest on this subject below, with new numbers on the state of the job market.

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