Healthcare stocks were higher late Wednesday afternoon, with the NYSE Healthcare Index up 0.1% and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) adding 0.4%.
The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) rose 1.4%.
In corporate news, Eli Lilly (LLY) said data from a phase 3 head-to-head trial showed retatrutide delivered greater A1C reduction and "substantially" more weight loss than Novo Nordisk's (NVO) injectable Ozempic 2 mg in adults with type 2 diabetes at 80 weeks. Lilly shares were up 0.8%, and Novo was down 1.3%.
Boston Scientific (BSX) lowered its full-year financial outlook amid the impact of a cybersecurity incident earlier this year, while the medical device maker's Q3 earnings fell year over year. Its shares fell 4.7%.
Anthropic said Tuesday that its Claude AI model helped biotech partners accelerate drug discovery, improve potential medicines and reduce regulatory paperwork. The company said that over the past several months, its scientists have worked with six organizations developing new medicines: BigHat Biosciences, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Divergence Labs, Enveda, Generate Biomedicines and The Column Group. Bristol Myers Squibb shares were down 1.5%.
Genmab (GMAB) shares surged 28% after it said Wednesday that a phase 3 trial of petosemtamab plus pembrolizumab met both primary endpoints. The study evaluated the combination in patients with first-line PD-L1-positive recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The combination was compared with pembrolizumab alone, the company said.
