Innovative Drug Concept Stocks Surge, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals and Others Hit Daily Limit Up

Northwest Biotherapeutics and the UK National Health Service Blood and Transplant have entered into a collaboration to support production of the company's experimental cancer vaccine DCVax-L. NHSBT's Therapeutic Apheresis Services is carrying out leukapheresis procedures to collect the immune cell starting material needed for the DCVax-L treatment, while its Cellular and Molecular Therapies team is providing specialist cell processing and handling of cellular material, working with Northwest Biotherapeutics and Advent Bioservices. The collaboration initially involves Leeds and Oxford, and the parties are exploring phased expansion of the model to additional NHSBT locations across England. Northwest Biotherapeutics CEO Linda Powers said NHSBT's capabilities can significantly enhance the scale-up and accessibility of DCVax-L, and NHSBT Medical Director Dr James Griffin said the aim is to help make cutting edge advanced therapies more accessible. DCVax-L is a treatment for Glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of primary brain cancer, as well as all solid tumours, and Northwest Biotherapeutics has submitted a Marketing Authorisation Application for commercial approval in the UK that is currently undergoing review.

Johnson & Johnson is expected to report quarterly earnings of $2.66 per share in its forthcoming report, a decline of 5% year over year, on revenues projected to reach $25.37 billion, up 5.8% from the same quarter last year. Over the last 30 days, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised downward by 0.3%. Within the company's Innovative Medicine segment, analysts project worldwide sales of $16.59 billion, up 6.6%, including $708.49 million for CARVYKTI, up 35.2%, and $612.16 million for SPRAVATO, up 33.4%. In MedTech, the consensus estimate for worldwide Orthopaedics Trauma sales stands at $831.48 million, up 4.9%, while worldwide Orthopaedics Spine, Sports & Other is projected at $700.77 million, up 0.4%, and worldwide Surgery Advanced at $1.17 billion, up 0.7%. International sales are expected to reach $10.77 billion, up 4.7%, and organic sales growth is projected at 6.8% versus 5.4% a year ago.

Multiply Labs announced a $75 million Series B round, bringing its total capital raised to over $100 million since its founding in 2016. The round was led by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong with NantWorks, joined by new investors AstraZeneca, Lingotto, Teradyne, and Strange Ventures, alongside returning investors Casdin Capital, Lux Capital, Fifty Years, Ora Global, and Founders Fund. The San Francisco-based physical AI company automates biologics manufacturing with robotic clusters that integrate into existing instruments and processes without requiring a new facility, delivering a 74% reduction in cost per dose and up to 100 times more throughput than manual manufacturing. Beginning with cell and gene therapy and now expanding to advanced biologics including antibodies, viral vectors, and mRNA, the platform is owned and operated directly by pharmaceutical and biologics companies rather than run as an outsourced service. Multiply Labs will use the capital to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate its product roadmap, and scale its team across engineering, regulatory, and commercial functions as it moves from clinical-stage deployments toward commercial-scale production.

The fair value estimate for Iovance Biotherapeutics has been raised to US$12.80 per share from US$10.00, according to Simply Wall St. The revision reflects stronger expectations for the Amtagvi launch, margin trends and upcoming data, with the revenue growth assumption shifting from 43.38% to 45.57% and the net profit margin assumption moving from 9.50% to 12.09%. H.C. Wainwright lifted its price target to US$20 from US$9, citing FY26 total revenue guidance of US$410m to US$420m tied to U.S. demand for Amtagvi and Proleukin, while Wells Fargo moved to US$18 from US$14 and Goldman Sachs pointed to an inflection in the Amtagvi launch and easing logistical challenges. Barclays flagged durability in second line lung cancer for lifileucel ahead of IOV-LUN-202 data, while UBS, which raised its target to US$7 from US$4 and remains Neutral, noted that a strong Amtagvi quarter and gross margin of 56% came alongside a 74% rally in the stock. The valuation model's future P/E multiple changed from 75.55x to 72.80x and the discount rate moved from 7.47% to 7.50%.