SRN NEWS

Oct 5 (Reuters) – Medical device maker GE HealthCare said on Monday it would buy privately held Sofie Biosciences for $945 million in cash, in a move that strengthens its ability to manufacture and distribute PET imaging drugs. The acquisition will give GE HealthCare US rights to FAPI-74, an experimental PET imaging agent in late-stage testing that could be used to detect several types of cancer. GE HealthCare already owns rights to the product outside the US. Here are more details: • The deal bolsters GE HealthCare’s pharmaceutical diagnostics arm by adding products used with its imaging systems and increasing its exposure to the growing radiopharmaceuticals market • It comes after Curium in August struck a deal of up to $8 billion for radiopharma peer Lantheus, underscoring rising dealmaking in the industry as firms seek to capitalize on the growing use of radioactive drugs in cancer care • GE HealthCare’s radiopharma business includes Flyrcado, a PET imaging agent approved by the US FDA for detecting coronary artery disease, myocardial ischemia and heart attacks • The company bought Montreal-based medical imaging software provider Intelerad in a $2.3 billion takeover in March, expanding its outpatient care reach • It said Sofie would continue to manufacture products for existing customers, including other radiopharma companies, after the transaction closes, which is expected in the first half of 2027 • Sofie Biosciences, owned by private equity firm Trilantic, develops products including radioisotopes used in PET scans. It also operates facilities that make and distribute them for hospitals and imaging centers (Reporting by Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

AMSTERDAM, Oct 5 (Reuters) – German robotics maker RobCo on Monday said it had passed a $1 billion valuation and that its CEO Roman Holzl had relocated to the United States to focus on the company’s fastest-growing market. The Munich-based firm said the valuation was based on a secondary sale of shares following a $100 million capital raise in January with investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and Lingotto. In the secondary sale, employees sold shares to existing and new investors including Cherry Ventures and the European Tech Collective. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Monday’s transaction and valuation, said the transaction involved the sale of $40 million worth of shares. The company joins a small but growing group of European robotics startups valued at $1 billion or more that are targeting the emerging humanoid and human-like robot market, including NEURA Robotics and Agile Robots of Germany, and Humanoid of the UK. Founded in 2020, RobCo makes robots used in manufacturing. It said it will in March launch Alfie, a two-armed, self-learning robot designed to perform tasks in industrial settings that can’t easily be done with traditional automation. The company, which has operations in Austin and San Francisco in addition to its Munich base, said it now has customers in more than a dozen US states. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Jan Harvey) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Mohammed Ghobari and Timour Azhari Oct 5 (Reuters) – Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have secured effective control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told Reuters on Monday, though fighting continues with Houthi forces in the area. The government forces advanced rapidly along the coast with heavy Saudi air support to seize key positions in the Dhubab area on the narrowest point of the strait, a vital oil route whose seizure by the Iran-backed Houthis last month sent shockwaves through energy markets. However, while Eryani said the military had seized Dhubab airstrip, located just inland from the strait, and cut off remaining Houthi forces in the area, another government source said fighting continued at a military base near the strait. The Houthis earlier denied that government forces had made gains, describing such claims as “completely untrue”. While recapturing the coastal area around the strait would make it harder for the Houthis to disrupt shipping between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, they could still target vessels with drones from positions further up the coast and inland. Meanwhile, the Houthis themselves made important advances near the city of Taiz, gaining sections of a mountain road to leave government forces there besieged, according to five military sources with the Yemeni government. One other government source denied the road had been cut. KEY ENERGY EXPORT ROUTE UNDER THREAT Fighting has raged along several frontlines in Yemen for weeks after a dormant civil war erupted in a spillover from the US-Iran conflict, with the Houthis seeking to control the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait and firing missiles and drones at Saudi cities and infrastructure.  With Gulf energy exports already restricted by Iran’s closure of the Hormuz Strait, the fighting in Yemen has threatened another major oil export route, pushing up global prices and raising new risks in a region already aflame.  The internationally recognised Yemeni government announced on Sunday the launch of its offensive to recapture territory, with President Rashad al-Alimi swearing to fight “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia”.  Saudi Arabia, which arms and trains Yemeni government forces, is backing the military campaign with air power and has sought logistical help from allies to push back the Houthis, restore free traffic in the Red Sea, and end the group’s attacks on its territory.  Riyadh said on Monday it had attacked hundreds of targets in Yemen to provide air cover for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Yemeni ground forces. The Yemeni government said it had launched attacks on several fronts including in the province of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. The Houthi-run health ministry said two people had been killed and seven wounded in strikes on Sanhan and Sa’wan districts in Sanaa province. HEAVIEST FIGHTING IS IN SOUTHWEST YEMEN While the war has raged on several frontlines in Yemen, the heaviest fighting has been in the southwest, both in the coastal area near the strait and in the hills around Taiz, where the Houthis have been battling to surround government forces.  Last week Houthi attacks damaged a culvert on the Taiz-Aden road, making it impassable. On Sunday night the group’s fighters made new advances into the town of al-Turbah, sitting atop a high promontory on the road, five government military sources said, though another government source denied this. A Houthi-run news agency on Monday cited a military source as saying the group had driven government forces from the al-Mawasit district of Taiz province, reaching the home of Alimi, head of Yemen’s interim presidential council.  Those fresh advances leave Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city with a population of over half a million and a garrison of thousands of government fighters, surrounded by Houthi forces, the government military sources said. Taiz, nestled among Yemen’s southern highlands, has been on the frontlines since early in the civil war, often under Houthi shell and sniper fire. Yemen’s conflict began after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in the following year with an air campaign aimed at restoring the government and ousting the Iran-backed group.  The fighting quickly ground to a bloody stalemate, with most frontlines stalled, leading to a major humanitarian crisis in what was already the poorest Arab state, until a ceasefire was agreed in 2022 that held until this summer.  (Reporting by Timour Azhari, Mohammed Ghobari and Jana Choukeir; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Gareth Jones) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Oct 5 (Reuters) – Gate Bioscience said on Monday it expanded a research and licensing agreement with Eli Lilly to develop treatments targeting disease-causing proteins, in a deal potentially worth more than $870 million. The companies’ original agreement, announced in July 2025, was worth up to $856 million. Here are key details: • The expanded collaboration adds one drug target, with an option to add a second • Gate will receive an upfront payment and research funding, as well as an additional payment if the second target is selected • The companies did not disclose the upfront payment • Privately held Gate Bioscience will use its platform to discover oral small-molecule drugs designed to eliminate proteins that have been difficult to target with existing medicines • Gate will lead the discovery work, while Lilly will handle late-stage preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization • Lilly will have exclusive worldwide rights to products developed for the selected targets • Gate is also eligible for milestone payments and royalties on global sales (Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW, Oct 5 (Reuters) – A laboratory worker at a plague research institute in Siberia has fallen ill and died in undisclosed circumstances, prompting authorities to quarantine dozens of people, and the head of Russia’s health watchdog to fly to the Irkutsk region. The death has sparked public health fears on social media, but the authorities said on Monday the situation was under control. Plague is endemic to Siberia, location of the first known prehistoric human outbreak, as the bacterium that causes it, Yersinia pestis, is present among the small wild mammals in its vast wilderness and their fleas. It is rare for Russians to fall ill with plague, however, though cases in other parts of the world – notably Africa – occur every year. Local media named the woman as Darya Shipilova, an employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. There were conflicting reports about how and where the laboratory worker, whose age was given as 28, had fallen ill, but the authorities said she had died of pneumonia of as-yet unestablished origin. AUTHORITIES SAY NO NEW CASES REPORTED, ALL CONTACTS TRACEDRussia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, told state media the institute had not found evidence of any accidents involving the handling of pathogens after rumours spread on social media that the woman had dropped a test tube containing live bacteria. Nevertheless, Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, flew to Siberia for an emergency meeting over the weekend. An unspecified number of people who had been in contact with the dead woman were quarantined, parts of the hospital in the town of Shelekhov where she died were cordoned off, and an aluminium plant told its workers to wear masks. Authorities urged people to remain calm and said there was no evidence that the woman’s death was linked to her work. Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, said in a statement that she had died of “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”, adding: “Importantly, over the past few days, no new cases of staff from the Anti-Plague Institute seeking medical attention have been identified.” He said the situation was under control and that all known contacts of the dead woman had been identified, examined and placed under medical supervision. Plague comes in three forms affecting different parts of the body. Pneumonic plague, an infection of the lungs, prompts the patient to cough out infectious airborne droplets. If identified quickly, it can be treated with antibiotics. But if left untreated, it can be fatal in one to six days. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn;Editing by Kevin Liffey) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com