Hello, my fellow wheat frolickers,
This week is a big breakfast bowl of stories: China is going for global dominance in the first-in-class drug race, biotech could hold the key to a cereal-killing crop disease, European pharma leaders are sounding the alarm over the continent’s biotech decline, light-sensitive nanoparticles have triggered light responses in blind mice, and it turns out the man with two brains isn’t just a bad film from the ’80s…
Theresa May, eat your heart out!
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Discover 🔍
🇨🇳 China targets 25% share of global first-in-class drugs in new 5-year plan (Fierce Biotech): The new five-year pharma plan aims to drive more than 20% annual growth in innovative drugs and bring more homegrown candidates into clinical development. The government wants 50 drugmakers to have over 10 billion yuan in annual sales by 2030, and for at least five Chinese medicines to become global blockbusters.
Our take: Aiming for a quarter of the world’s first-in-class drugs is a bold attempt to redefine what China’s pharma industry is known for, primarily generics, active pharmaceutical ingredients, contract services and the efficient execution of Western-led programmes. The plan wants China to become the originator of the science itself, but with overseas licensing deals already worth more than $120B this year, much of its homegrown innovation still ends up in Western pipelines. That will need to change.
🌾 Can this biotech innovation halt the destructive march of a cereal killer? (Phys.org): UK and Japanese researchers have shown how crops can detect and fight off blast fungus. Using crystallography, they mapped tandem kinase proteins, a newer class of plant immune receptors, revealing a “bait” region that traps effectors (small proteins the fungus slips into plant cells to switch off their defences). Building on this, the team engineered a receptor to recognise effectors linked to both wheat and barley infection, a dual specificity rarely seen in nature. (Read the paper)
Our take: Blast fungus is a serious disease in cultivated crops; it destroys enough rice each year to feed 60 million people, and has been spreading through wheat crops since the 1980s. Resistance usually comes from slow conventional breeding, but this work suggests plant immunity could become programmable, with receptors redesigned to recognise new effectors as the fungus evolves. So far it has only been shown in individual wheat cells, but if it works in whole plants, it could mean bespoke resistance for wheat, barley and rice.
🇪🇺 9 pharma leaders sound ‘alarm bells’ on biotech’s decline in Europe (BioPharma Dive): In an open letter, Europe’s pharma leaders are warning that the continent is being squeezed out of the global drug race. Its share of global pharma R&D has fallen from 43% in 1990 to 31% today, while its share of commercial clinical trials has halved to just 9%. Meanwhile, more than $600B in pharma investment has been announced in the US and China in the past two years.
Our take: If this trend continues, Europe risks losing the very foundations of its drug development. Commercial trials, and the investment they bring in, support an entire layer of research infrastructure; once that activity migrates elsewhere, it is incredibly hard to rebuild. The leaders’ asks (faster trials, stronger IP protection, and sensible digital policies) would help, but they skirt the US’s biggest draw: freedom on pricing. Until Europe offers a more lucrative market, the pull across the Atlantic may prove hard to resist.
🐭 Biomimetic nanoparticles trigger light responses in blind mouse retinas (GEN): Researchers have shown that light-sensitive nanoparticles can restore a degree of light responsiveness in degenerated mouse retinas. The hollow particles, made from graphitic carbon nitride, were modelled on chloroplasts and act as miniature photoresponsive interfaces. Injected into the eyes of mice with advanced retinitis pigmentosa, they settled near retinal ganglion cells and produced measurable activity in the visual cortex, along with behavioural responses to light. (Read the paper)
Our take: Most attempts to restore vision focus on repairing genes, replacing cells or implanting electronics. This non-mutation-specific technique takes a different route, instead homing in on the retinal neurons left behind after sight loss. The injected particles act as a wireless interface between incoming light and the surviving nerve cells, reinstating light sensitivity. While the approach does not yet restore vision, the researchers hope this “brings us closer to our long-term goal of developing a new type of retinal prosthesis”.
And finally…
🧠 Brain is two separate organs, scientists find (The Telegraph): In fascinating neural news, Stanford researchers have found that the front and back of the brain may have evolved from two ancient nervous systems that later merged. Studying mouse embryos, they discovered that one set of progenitor cells builds the forebrain and midbrain, while a completely separate set builds the hindbrain – a split they traced as far back as acorn worms. The findings could open up new research avenues into neurodegenerative diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy and ALS, which target hindbrain neurons.
Our take: Developmental biology may need to stop treating the brain as a single lineage. This challenges a basic assumption built into many brain-development models, that one early progenitor gives rise to the whole organ. If the forebrain and hindbrain are developmentally distinct from the outset, disease models, organoids and differentiation protocols may need to be redesigned around separate embryonic origins rather than a single “brain” programme.
Tune in 🎧
☀️ The best biotech conversations you missed this summer: A recap of standout episodes on getting drugs into the brain, avoiding liver uptake, targeting nonsense mutations and circular RNA.
🧬 Finding new opportunities in obesity with Moonwalk Bioscience’s Alex Aravanis, MD, PhD: How the biotech is developing fat-targeted siRNA therapies, using human genetics and AI to pick targets and sharpen drug design.
🍼 How a breast-milk-derived peptide could change bladder cancer care: Hamlet Biopharma’s chair explains how its drug, Alpha1H, is designed to kill bladder tumour cells while sparing healthy tissue.
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🧑🔬 29.09 | BioForward 2026 | Oxfordshire, UK: A one-day event connecting R&D-led biotech and life sciences companies with investors, partners and specialist service providers to support collaboration, funding and commercial growth.
👩💻 30.09 | Women in Biotech – Edinburgh | Edinburgh, UK: A networking evening and panel on how biotech leaders are using digitalisation and automation to get their businesses AI-ready. Open to all.
💷 01.10 | BioCap 2026 | Macclesfield, UK: Bionow’s one-day investment conference at Alderley Park, bringing together life sciences businesses, researchers and investors to explore funding opportunities and the investment landscape.
💻 13.10 | TechBio UK | London, UK: The BIA’s flagship TechBio conference, where leaders from biotech, pharma, technology and investment meet to discuss data and AI, genomics and engineering biology.
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