Beam Therapeutics has sued former scientist Zi Jun (Emma) Wang, alleging she stole trade secrets while employed at the company and secretly founded the China-based startup YolTech Therapeutics. The complaint says YolTech is developing a base-editing therapy for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency that would compete directly with Beam’s BEAM-302 program. It also alleges the YOLT-202 project has entered the U.S. market and names an affiliated company, Serapha, as a defendant. Bloomberg Law first reported the lawsuit.

uniQure released 48-month clinical data for its Huntington’s disease gene therapy AMT-130 that did not significantly slow disease progression. The cUHDRS measure showed the slowdown easing to 44% at month 48 from 75% at month 36. The stock fell 41% at the open to $23.15. Analysts and company executives said they remain encouraged by the strength of a secondary endpoint and still see a potential path to approval.

AstraZeneca said it will invest $2 billion in Summit Therapeutics to speed development of the PD-1xVEGF bispecific antibody ivonescimab in combination with antibody-drug conjugates. The deal includes AstraZeneca buying a 12% stake in Summit at an 18% premium to the biotech’s Monday closing price and co-funding clinical trials combining ivonescimab with the CLDN18.2-targeted ADC sonesitatug vedotin. Summit shares rose 18% to $18.23 in after-hours trading on Monday after the announcement.

Merck and Daiichi Sankyo have withdrawn their accelerated-approval application for the lung cancer ADC I-DXd after the FDA said the available data were insufficient for that pathway. The filing had relied on phase 2 results, but regulators indicated the evidence did not meet the bar for accelerated approval. The setback adds to pressure on the partners’ three-ADC collaboration, which Merck backed with a $4 billion upfront payment in 2023, after another program, HER3-DXd, was rejected by the FDA in 2024 over manufacturing issues.