Healthcare News: IPO for an AI-designed asthma drug

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Generate Bio Goes Through the Open Biotech IPO Window

The deal
Generate Biomedicines joined the public markets with a $400 million IPO, much of which will go toward two ongoing Phase 3 studies for its lead program, a long-acting antibody drug for severe asthma. Generate priced its shares at $16 each, which was the midpoint of its targeted price range.

The drug
One driver of severe asthma is TSLP, a signaling protein associated with a range of inflammatory disorders. Generate's GB-0895 is a monoclonal antibody designed to block this target. It comes from a platform technology that uses artificial intelligence to form design hypotheses for potential drugs and hardware systems that verify them. Generate describes its approach as "programmable biology."

Why it Matters
Biologic drugs offer patients a powerful way to treat inflammatory conditions, including asthma. But frequent injections lead many patients to stop taking these drugs or avoid them in the first place. Generate's drug was designed for dosing every six months, an interval that would give it an edge over monthly injections of Tezspire, a blockbuster Amgen and AstraZeneca drug that addresses TSLP.

Soundbite
"Since inception, the Generate Platform was designed to create differentiated protein therapeutics and unlock the promise of a new method of designing drugs through a concept we call programmable biology," the company said in its IPO filing. "For biology to be programmable, it means that we must be able to design, write and execute biological functions with pre-specified intent, across therapeutic areas and protein modalities."

—By Frank Vinluan

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Walgreens Introduces Virtual Weight Management Offering

The news
Walgreens launched a new digital weight management offering on Thursday, which provides access to clinician-led support and GLP-1s.

The weight management program
The program is available to adults ages 18 to 64 who are overweight or have obesity and plan to self-pay for their GLP-1 medication. Patients complete a video visit with a doctor or nurse practitioner, who reviews their health history, goals and medical needs. The provider can prescribe GLP-1s, and patients can request follow-up visits via video or chat for any medication changes and side effect management. Providers are available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. CT seven days a week.

Consumers can access the program in 28 states. It costs $49 per clinician visit.

Soundbite
"Walgreens launched Walgreens Weight Management to offer patients convenient and affordable access to care for a growing health need like weight loss," a spokesperson told MedCity News. "It aligns with Walgreens' mission to support patients by offering an end‑to‑end solution for a common need."

— By Marissa Plescia

Monthly Summary of Executive Hires, Promotions and Layoffs

Moves at AI startups
Documentation AI startup Ambience Healthcare appointed Mike Valli as its new chief revenue officer. Valli comes to the company from symplr, where he served as chief commercial officer. Before that, he spent nine years at Optum and seven years at Huron.

Documentation AI startup Nabla welcomed Matthew Sakumoto as its new chief clinical product officer. He is a primary care physician by training, and prior to joining Nabla, worked in clinical and leadership roles at Sutter Health, UCSF Health and Teladoc Health.

Care coordination platform Viz.ai appointed Jallel Harrati as its new chief revenue officer. He comes to the company from Suki, and before that, he worked in leadership roles at IBM and Philips Healthcare.

Promotions
Flatiron Health promoted three of its longtime employees to the executive team. Allison Candido became the company's chief technology officer, Kate Estep became its chief product officer, and Michael Bierl became its chief business officer. In the past, Candido worked at Amazon, Estep consulted at Deloitte, and Bierl held roles at Boston Consulting Group and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Layoffs
Cigna is letting go of about 2,000 employees, which is about 3% of the payer's workforce. The company said the layoffs were driven by a broader cost-cutting effort amid rising healthcare spending and industry pressure to improve efficiency.

Merck is cutting about 150 jobs at its vaccine manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, largely because of a significant decline in global demand for its human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil.

PeaceHealth's most recent round of layoffs will eliminate 94 positions across the Oregon-based health system. The job cuts come as part of cost-cutting and restructuring efforts.

Walgreens cut 628 jobs as part of its post‑private‑equity restructuring, including 469 positions in Illinois and 159 in Texas.

— By Katie Adams

Regulating Healthcare AI? Look To E-Prescribing

Guardrails needed
When it comes to a patient's healthcare decisions, ultimately, a human bears the responsibility for AI decisions, not a computer. Since AI is such a powerful tool, it needs guardrails. But any regulations applied won't be as simple as putting on a Band-Aid and forgetting about future problems. To regulate appropriately, we need to learn from the past and act quickly as AI is rapidly incorporated into healthcare.

E-prescribing as a model
What seemed like a foreign concept in the 1990s, electronically transmitting prescription information, is now commonplace and successful because we have standards. What we've seen from e-prescribing should be a lesson on how healthcare should adopt and regulate AI.

The goal is a standard, uniform set of guidelines to ensure clarity across the industry as AI technology quickly becomes adopted. Using AI-powered tools is already improving care accuracy by giving physicians more time and helping them catch potential errors. With standardization comes greater usage and a healthier population. As new issues arise, they can be addressed. Like e-prescribing, any regulations for healthcare AI must be considered an ongoing process.

Focus on the "gray area"
This occurs when AI output sounds reasonable, but the clinician is unfamiliar with the information. Clinicians must participate in continuing medical education (CME) to maintain licensure and AI training should be considered as part of the CME process. We can see a similar approach used for controlled substance prescribing education. To use AI as a tool, clinicians must understand how to use that tool.

Additionally, regulations should require that any AI output be cited and that the citation be easily accessible to clinicians. If a physician questions an AI response, the AI must provide a clear path for clinicians to fact-check the output.

A trusted tool
Let's make sure AI can be as powerful and as trusted a tool as possible. And that means smartly implementing regulations.

— By MedCity Influencer Michael Blackman

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Saturday, 28 February 2026

IPO for an AI-designed asthma drug