Pharmaceuticals News 2 October 2025 - 18 October 2025

RANI Stock Price Explodes on Deal News Rani Therapeutics’ stock price skyrocketed on Friday, Oct. 17, after the company unveiled a major partnership and funding news. In pre-market trade, RANI jumped about 150% and continued to rally after the market open tipranks.com. The stock, which had closed at just $0.47 the prior day, briefly hit approximately $1.37 per share – nearly a 3× gain in value google.com. By midday, shares were still trading around the $1.30 level, up almost +180% on the day. This stunning one-day move snapped RANI out of penny-stock territory and back above the Nasdaq’s $1 minimum

LLY Stock Skyrockets, Then Dips on Pricing Jitters Eli Lilly’s stock has been on a tear in 2025, powered by optimism around its new drug innovations. Shares surged dramatically at the start of October – leaping from about $726 at the end of September to as high as $832 by October 1ts2.tech. This double-digit jump in just days far outpaced the broader market and reflected euphoric sentiment toward Lilly’s growth prospectsts2.tech. Analysts attributed the rally to a perfect storm of positive news: strong recent earnings, insider buying, and fresh research fueling excitement about Lilly’s obesity and Alzheimer’s franchisests2.tech. For example,

NVO Stock Slides as Weight-Loss Hype Cools Novo Nordisk’s stock has been on a wild ride. After becoming Europe’s most valuable company in 2022–2023 on the back of its smash-hit obesity drug Wegovy, the Danish pharma giant has seen its fortunes reverse sharply in 2025. As of October 17, NVO shares trade in the mid-$50s – down nearly 50% from January levelsreuters.comreuters.com and miles below the late-2024 peak (when Novo’s market cap neared $650 B)reuters.comreuters.com. What happened? In short, the once-unbounded GLP-1 weight-loss boom has hit reality. Several factors have converged to deflate Novo’s valuation. Competition has intensified: U.S. rival Eli

SCNX Stock Climbs on Arbli Launch Pills and a daily pill organizer: Arbli’s liquid formulation helps patients (especially children/elderly) who can’t swallow tablets. Scienture’s stock jumped sharply on Oct. 16 after the company formally launched Arbli™ in the U.S. market. In a GlobeNewswire press release that morning, Scienture announced that Arbli™ is now shipping through major pharmaceutical wholesalers nationwideglobenewswire.com. Arbli is the first FDA-approved oral liquid form of losartan, a top-selling blood pressure drug. The launch news and accompanying marketing caused traders to bid up SCNX: one trader wrote that shares moved “from yesterday’s close around 72 cents to nearly

Stock Price Rollercoaster in 2025 Adaptimmune’s stock has been on a wild ride this year, with extreme price swings in recent weeks grabbing headlines. After languishing in penny-stock territory for months, ADAP suddenly caught fire in late September 2025. On September 19, shares opened at a mere $0.08 but skyrocketed 98% by day’s end to $0.16, then jumped another 30% after-hours to ~$0.20 ts2.tech. This stunning one-day move – without any company-specific catalyst – was accompanied by an enormous volume of 705+ million shares traded (versus ~60 million on an average day) ts2.tech. Market observers noted Adaptimmune as one of

Figure: Hims & Hers markets a broad telehealth platform for men’s and women’s healthts2.tech. Its stock has surged with the boom in telehealth and weight-loss treatments. Women’s Health Expansion Sparks Rally On Oct. 15, Hims & Hers stunned the market by launching a dedicated menopause/perimenopause care program on its “Hers” telehealth platform. The company said the new service would connect women with personalized hormone therapies (estradiol, progesterone, etc.) to ease symptoms like hot flashes and sleep issuests2.tech. This push into a historically underserved sector (roughly 1.3 million U.S. women enter menopause each year) met eager investor demand. As Benzinga and

Company Background AstraZeneca PLC is a leading Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant specializing in oncology, respiratory, cardiovascular/metabolic, and rare disease medicinesmarketbeat.comastrazeneca.com. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, it maintains primary listings on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stockholm, with secondary ADR trading in the U.S.astrazeneca.com. The company was formed in 1999 by merging Sweden’s Astra AB and the UK’s Zeneca. Its 2024 revenues were $54.07 billionastrazeneca.com, driven by top-selling drugs like Tagrisso (lung cancer), Lynparza (ovarian cancer), Farxiga (diabetes), and Symbicort (asthma)marketbeat.com. In its 2024 Annual Report, AZN describes itself as “a global, science-led, patient-focused pharmaceutical business” and targets $80B in sales by 2030

Metric Merck (MRK) Last Price (10/10/25) $86.02marketbeat.com Market Cap $215Bmarketbeat.com P/E (TTM) ~13×marketbeat.com Yield 3.8%marketbeat.com 52-Week Range $73.31 – $111.58marketbeat.com YTD Total Return -11.07%financecharts.com Q2 2025 Sales $15.8Binvesting.com 2024 Sales $64.2Bmerck.com 2024 R&D Spend $17.9Bmerck.com Analyst PT (avg) $104 (12-mo)marketbeat.com Consensus Rating Holdmarketbeat.com Company Overview Merck & Co. (MRK, called MSD outside North America) is a global healthcare company (75,000 employeesmerck.com) organized in Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines and Animal Health. It focuses on oncology/immunology, infectious disease (including vaccines), cardio-metabolic, and hospital specialty medicinesmerck.com. Its blockbuster product KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) – a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor – has driven Merck’s growth, accounting for >50% of pharma sales in

2025 Year‑to‑Date Stock Performance Cidara’s stock has been among the best performers in biotech. According to YTDReturn.com, a US$10,000 investment on 31 Dec 2024 would have grown to ~US$37,943 by 3 Oct 2025 because the share price increased from US$26.88 to US$101.99, a 279.43 % YTD return ytdreturn.com. Zacks similarly reported a 217.8 % YTD rally by late September nasdaq.com, reflecting further gains in October. The stock traded between US$10.14 and US$106.63 over the past year stockanalysis.com and surged 695.5 % year‑on‑year nasdaq.com. The rally was driven by positive trial data, accelerated regulatory milestones and speculative interest. Cidara’s Cloudbreak platform generated excitement because the CD388 candidate could