Today, a brief rundown of news from OrsoBio, as well as updates from Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Vaxcyte that you may have missed.

OrsoBio, an obesity-focused startup backed by Eli Lilly, has raised $67 million in a Series B funding round, the company announced Friday. The cash will help advance a portfolio of weight loss medicines aimed at different drug targets than the GLP-1 therapies sold by Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Two of OrsoBio’s drugs are in Phase 2 testing for diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, while a third, oral medication should begin mid-stage testing "in the coming months," the company said in a statement. — Ben Fidler

A transplant of CRISPR-edited stem cells successfully engrafted in all 18 people with acute myeloid leukemia given the experimental therapy, called trem-cel and developed by Vor Bio. Notably, the gene edits appeared to shield against on-target toxicity from subsequent dosing with the drug Mylotarg in 10 of the study participants. Mylotarg, an old drug for AML, targets a protein called CD33 that’s overexpressed in the cancer. Vor’s transplanted cells are edited to remove CD33 so they’re protected from Mylotarg-related friendly fire. Shares in Vor climbed by as much as 40% Friday on the news. — Ned Pagliarulo

Boehringer Ingelheim plans to advance an experimental eye drug into mid-stage testing early next year, after the antibody fragment proved safe in a Phase 1 trial. The drug, which Boehringer developed with technology it licensed from Swiss biotechnology company CDR-Life, is designed to treat geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness that until recently had no treatment options. Boehringer said the drug’s design may allow it to get to the root of disease pathology and therefore believes it could “achieve unprecedented efficacy.” — Ned Pagliarulo

Novartis has licensed a “capsid” from Voyager Therapeutics for use building a gene therapy that can treat a rare neurological disease. Capsids can take a number of forms, but are used to shuttle genetic material to the right cells. Voyager’s are designed to get into the brain, a notoriously hard region of the body to reach. The companies have been working together since 2022, and expanded their collaboration this past January. As a result of the license, Novartis will pay Voyager $15 million. — Ned Pagliarulo

Vaccine developer Vaxcyte said Wednesday it raised approximately $1.3 billion from investors following positive early data for its experimental pneumococcal conjugate shot. The drugmaker’s market value jumped to more than $12 billion Tuesday after the company disclosed the data, which analysts viewed as competitive to Pfizer’s market-leading Prevnar vaccine. Vaxcyte said it is selling nearly 10.2 million shares of common stock at $103 per share, as well as pre-funded warrants to purchase about 2.4 million shares of common stock. The secondary offering is set to close Friday. — Delilah Alvarado