Today, a brief rundown of news involving Takeda Pharmaceutical and Maze Therapeutics, as well as updates from Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Soleno Therapeutics and Avidity Biosciences that you may have missed.

Takeda on Thursday said Rhonda Pacheco will become head of its U.S. business unit on Sept. 29. Pacheco has been at Eli Lilly for more than a decade and, since 2023, has been the group vice president of the pharmaceutical company’s cardiometabolic health unit, where she oversaw the lucrative launches of Lilly’s GLP-1 drugs. At Takeda, she’ll succeed Julie Kim, who was selected this year to take over for retiring CEO Christophe Weber in June 2026 and will serve as “interim” head of the company’s global portfolio ahead of the transition. — Ben Fidler

Shares of Maze Therapeutics climbed more than 50% on early data supporting a medicine it’s developing for the inherited disease phenylketonuria. The Phase 1 results announced Thursday found that an oral medicine codenamed MZE782 was well tolerated at all doses, with no severe adverse events reported. Notably, treatment resulted in urine levels of an important amino acid that surpassed investor expectations. The findings “support the potential for a best-in-class profile” in phenylketonuria as well as chronic kidney disease, wrote Leerink Partners analyst Joseph Schwartz. Maze raised $150 million in a private stock offering announced alongside the results. — Ben Fidler

Intercept Pharmaceuticals will withdraw its liver disease drug Ocaliva from the U.S. market at the request of the Food and Drug Administration, the company, now a subsidiary of Italy’s Alfasigma, said Thursday. The FDA has also ordered the suspension of all clinical trials involving Ocaliva, which was approved for primary biliary cholangitis in 2016. Concerns over Ocaliva’s safety have grown, leading the FDA to impose a black box warning on its use in 2018 and last December to caution of additional liver injury risk. The agency has also turned back Intercept’s attempts over the years to win approval of Ocaliva in the metabolic disease MASH. Intercept sold to Alfasigma in 2023. — Ned Pagliarulo

Soleno Therapeutics’ stock fell nearly 20% after the company revealed the death of a patient who received its Prader Willi syndrome drug Vykat was reported to the FDA’s adverse event reporting system, or FAERS. In a Wednesday regulatory filing, Soleno stressed the treating physician didn’t believe Vykat to be related, that a FAERS report doesn’t establish causation and that the patient, who died from a blood clot that traveled to the lungs, had a history of health conditions. The details “provide strong support that it’s not drug-related,” wrote Stifel analyst James Condulis, whose team was “surprised” by the stock move. Soleno shares have lost about one-third of their value since last month, when short-selling activist firm Scorpion Capital published a report alleging serious safety concerns with Vykat, the first approved drug for the insatiable hunger associated with Prader-Willi. — Ben Fidler

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals escalated a patent fight with Ionis Pharmaceuticals over rival drugs the two companies have been developing for the same rare disease. Ionis claimed Arrowhead’s experimental drug for familial chylomicronemia syndrome, which is currently under FDA review, infringes on an Ionis patent and threatened legal action. Arrowhead on Thursday responded by asking a Delaware District Court to declare Ionis’ patent invalid or not infringed on. Ionis’ therapy, Tryngolza, was approved last year for familial chylomicronemia syndrome. Arrowhead’s suit is a “strategic move” meant to “clear patent obstacles” before its competing medicine, known as plozasiran, arrives, wrote Jefferies analyst Maury Raycroft. — Ben Fidler

Investors deserted Avidity Biosciences this week, selling off shares after the company announced plans to raise $500 million by issuing new stock. The news seemed to deflate optimism that Avidity might get bought by a large pharmaceutical company like Novartis, which a report in the Financial Times earlier this month had linked to the biotech. Avidity, which specializes in RNA medicine, said it plans to use the funds to advance its late-stage drug candidates and prepare for commercialization. After selling off by double digits Thursday, Avidity stock regained some of those losses on Friday. — Ned Pagliarulo