Elicio Raises Fresh Capital Weeks After Trial Disappointment

Elicio expects to use net proceeds from the offering to fund the planned Phase 1 clinical development of ELI-002 7P in metastatic PDAC.


The offering is expected to conclude on or before July 6.


On June 15, the company reported a mid-stage study of its experimental drug ELI-002 7P that had failed to meet its primary goal.


Shares of Elicio Therapeutics (ELTX) plunged over 24% premarket on Thursday after the clinical-stage biotech announced a $15 million registered direct offering. The financing comes less than three weeks after the company's lead pancreatic cancer candidate failed to meet the primary endpoint in a mid-stage study.
Elicio Prices $15M Registered Direct Offering

Elicio expects to generate net proceeds of about $15 million, before deducting offering expenses and agent fees. The offering is expected to conclude on or before July 6.


The company said it had entered into a securities purchase agreement with two institutional investors to sell more than 4.3 million shares.
Proceeds Will Fund Lead Pancreatic Cancer Program

The company said it expects to use net proceeds, together with its existing cash reserves and marketable securities, to fund the planned Phase 1 clinical development of ELI-002 7P in metastatic PDAC, the company's pipeline and platform, and general administrative purposes and working capital.

https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/another-blow-eltx-elicio-raises-112227447.html

Taiwan prosecutors detain Super Micro employees over chip exports

 Taiwanese prosecutors detained two Super Micro Computer Inc. employees on Wednesday following a raid of the company's local offices earlier this week over alleged shipments of Nvidia Corp. chips to China, according to a Bloomberg report early Wednesday.

Prosecutors are investigating four Super Micro employees for falsifying documents and breach of trust. The Keelung District Court approved the detention of two employees, while two others were released on bail but restricted from leaving Taiwan.

A manager at Super Micro distributor Albatron Technology Co. was also detained. Albatron confirmed the detention in a filing on Wednesday. An employee of data center operator Chief Telecom Inc. was questioned earlier this week.

Local investigators raided the residences of all six individuals and the offices of Super Micro, Albatron and Chief Telecom on Monday as part of an ongoing China chip smuggling probe.

Super Micro said on Monday it continues to cooperate with law enforcement and government officials in Taiwan and other jurisdictions.

Super Micro shares fell 8% in the U.S. on Monday following news of the raids. The stock recovered some losses on Tuesday and traded about 1% lower in pre-market on Wednesday.

The detentions this week add to three other detentions in May connected to the investigation. Those detained in May are suspected of sending at least one batch of Nvidia chips to China and attempting to export around 50 servers that were seized before leaving the island.

Taiwan does not currently treat AI chip exports to China as a crime.

https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/taiwan-prosecutors-detain-super-micro-130412571.html

Takeda secures exclusive global rights to therapeutics emerging from AI-driven Insilico collab

 

Takeda, Insilico sign up to $600 million AI-driven drug discovery collaboration

• Takeda secures exclusive global rights to therapeutics emerging from the AI-driven Insilico Medicine collaboration.

https://finviz.com/stock?t=TAK&p=d

SK Hynix removing price caps on long-term supply agreements: report

 SK Hynix (HXSCL) is removing price caps from its Long-Term Agreements, or LTAs, recently signed with its clients, Green Economy News reported, citing industry sources.

Unlike the existing practice of setting price caps for long-term contracts for memory, this structure allows the increase in spot prices to be fully reflected in the contract price if market prices surge due to supply shortages, the report added.

SK Hynix did not immediately respond to Seeking Alpha's request for comment.

Analysts suggest that suppliers' negotiating power is being significantly strengthened as the company, along with rival Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), extends contract periods, the report noted.

Usually, memory chip makers have reduced price volatility by offering price caps to clients in exchange for securing long-term orders. However, SK Hynix has effectively restructured its contracts to maximize profitability during periods of rising prices. The industry views SK Hynix as the only major memory maker currently that does not apply price caps, according to the report.

Long-term contract periods are also extending. As investment in AI servers increases and demand for high-performance memory, including High Bandwidth Memory, or HBM, grows, SK Hynix and Samsung are reportedly extending their long-term supply contracts from the existing one-year level to three to five years. Customers are also showing signs of securing memory supplies in the mid-to-long term, and suppliers appear to be gaining bargaining power, the report added.

American rival Micron Technology (MU) chose a different strategy. In a Strategic Customer Agreement, or SCA, released last month, Micron set the price cap for its existing products at the market price of the second quarter of 2026, the report noted.

The price floor was designed to guarantee profitability higher than in any past business cycle, to make sure that a certain level of profit can be secured even if market conditions deteriorate. The company aimed for both stability and profitability by leaving room for further price increases for the new products, the report noted.

An industry insider noted that as long as investment in AI servers continues to expand, it will be difficult for memory suppliers' bargaining power to weaken easily, adding that even in long-term supply contracts, a trend is emerging where the price structure is shifting in favor of suppliers, going beyond simply securing volume.

On Thursday, SK Hynix said it would invest 100T won (about $64.38B) to build memory chip ‌and packaging plants as part of a South Korean investment drive aimed at semiconductors and AI. Meanwhile, peer Samsung announced plans to invest a combined 140T won (about $90B). 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/sk-hynix-removing-price-caps-on-long-term-supply-agreements-report/ar-AA273RLy

AstraZeneca in $1.77B China CSPC kidney-disease collaboration

 

AstraZeneca's $1.77B CSPC kidney-disease collaboration drives 3.89% gain

• AZN announced deal with China's CSPC Pharma on July 2 for siRNA candidates targeting kidney diseases
• Up to $1.77 billion deal gives AZN option for global rights to one preclinical candidate and ex-China rights to another
• Builds on prior CSPC partnerships; aligns with AZN's China R&D expansion and pipeline in high-unmet-need CKD area
• Positive news coincides with Abbisko Therapeutics collab on oral PD-L1 inhibitor + TAGRISSO for NSCLC
• Stock rebounded from ~3% decline on July 1 close; traders and X buzz cited pipeline momentum as catalyst
• Move occurred during regular trading on NYSE; no earnings (Q2 due July 27) or other macro drivers noted

https://finviz.com/stock?t=AZN&p=d

OpenAI's cost breakthrough triggers global chip stock selloff

 OpenAI has stunned the market with both a software optimization and its first custom inference chip, 'Jalapeño,' developed with Broadcom. The software advance alone allowed ChatGPT’s guest tier to run on hundreds of GPUs instead of tens of thousands, slashing operational costs by more than half. Jalapeño, meanwhile, is engineered to match Nvidia's Blackwell and Google's TPU performance while halving inference costs, marking a decisive move away from reliance on Nvidia’s GPUs. The Motley Fool + 4

Jalapeño matches the performance of Nvidia's Blackwell chips and Google's TPUs while running inference for roughly half the cost.

Hock Tan,Broadcom CEO

Immediate market reaction mirrors past tech shocks

The news triggered a steep selloff across semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down over 5%. Major memory and AI chipmakers from Micron to Nvidia saw declines, reflecting patterns seen in prior technology market pullbacks when disruptive advances shifted demand expectations. Investors fear that efficiency gains could dampen the need for large-scale GPU purchases, hurting near-term demand. Barchart + 3

Short-term and long-term industry impacts

In the immediate term, hyperscalers may delay or reduce GPU orders as they assess the new economics of inference. In the short term, hardware suppliers could face pricing pressure and inventory adjustments, while in the long term, the shift toward cost-optimized inference could spur a wave of custom silicon development. Historical parallels to cloud computing price wars suggest that efficiency gains may expand AI adoption, potentially growing the overall market despite near-term turbulence. Seeking Alpha + 2

Scenario analysis: two possible futures

Scenario one: AI hardware demand slows as efficiency gains allow companies to meet user growth without proportional hardware expansion, compressing margins for GPU leaders. Scenario two: Lower inference costs accelerate AI adoption across industries, ultimately boosting total compute demand and benefiting chipmakers that pivot to custom, inference-optimized designs. The outcome will hinge on whether cost savings are reinvested into scaling AI services or banked as margin gains. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/openai-s-cost-breakthrough-triggers-global-chip-stock-selloff/gm-GM0AADFD39

Roche orchestrates phase 3 KRAS lung cancer win over Amgen, BMS

 Roche’s investigational KRAS G12C inhibitor has beaten Amgen’s Lumakras and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Krazati in a phase 3 trial, furthering its ambitions to establish divarasib as a new standard of care.

The open-label Krascendo 1 trial enrolled 338 people with previously treated, KRAS G12C-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients who had already tried a KRAS G12C inhibitor or pan-KRAS/RAS inhibitor were excluded from the trial. Participants took either divarasib once daily, Lumakras once daily or Krazati twice daily. 

Roche linked divarasib to statistically significant improvements in progression-free survival and overall survival, achieving the trial’s primary and key secondary endpoint. The results should establish divarasib as a new standard of care in the patient population, Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Roche’s chief medical officer, said in a statement. Roche has yet to share any survival numbers from the clinical trial. 

The readout validates Roche’s argument that divarasib is a differentiated molecule. Divarasib showed better potency and selectivity than the incumbent KRAS G12C inhibitors during in vitro tests. After cross-trial comparisons suggested the edge translated into better clinical outcomes, Roche axed a study comparing divarasib to the chemotherapy docetaxel and went toe-to-toe with Lumakras and Krazati.

Roche’s successful bet that divarasib would win a head-to-head study could help the KRAS G12C inhibitor come from behind to claim the second-line NSCLC market. The FDA approved Lumakras and Krazati in KRAS G12C-mutated, locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Amgen and BMS have struggled to capitalize on their headstarts over Roche. 

Lumakras and Krazati were scientific breakthroughs against a previously undruggable target, but sales have underwhelmed. Analysts tipped Lumakras to generate $347 million in 2022, its first full year on the U.S. market. Lumakras’ sales belatedly passed that target in 2024 and reached $363 million last year. BMS, which acquired Krazati in a $5.8 billion deal, reported $205 million in sales of the drug last year.

Undisclosed details of the divarasib data will shape whether Roche can deliver on its ambition to blast past its rivals’ sales. Roche forecasts (PDF) peak divarasib sales of 1 to 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 to $2.5 billion). The company has ongoing trials in first-line advanced or metastatic NSCLC and in an adjuvant lung cancer setting. Metastatic sales account for most of the forecast, Roche said at an event last month.

The company plans to present data at an upcoming medical meeting and submit the results to health authorities. Roche recently listed a filing for approval of divarasib in second-line NSCLC among planned submissions for 2027.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/roche-orchestrates-phase-3-kras-lung-cancer-win-over-amgen-and-bristol-myers