A small molecule drug being developed jointly by Galapagos NV and Laboratoires Servier has failed to meet the primary endpoint of a Phase 2 trial in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), the two companies announced on 15 October. The candidate treatment, GLPG1972, targets ADAMTS-5, an enzyme implicated in cartilage degradation. Osteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage that cushions the ends of bones wears down.

The European Medicines agency is recommending conditional approval of Tecartus (autologous anti-CD19-transduced CD3+ cells) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. The chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is the third medicine of its type to be reviewed by the agency. It follows the 2018 approvals of Kymriah for leukaemia and lymphoma and Yescarta for lymphoma.