Bausch + Lomb announced that CEO Brent Saunders has left the company, with board chair Thomas Appio stepping in as interim CEO effective immediately. The company said the departure was mutual. Analysts called the move unexpected but noted that Bausch + Lomb also raised its 2026 earnings outlook, which they took as a sign of continued operating momentum.
Merck presented detailed safety data for its experimental eye drug remigromig at a medical meeting over the weekend. In a late-stage trial for diabetic macular edema, remigromig was associated with proliferative diabetic retinopathy events in about 6% of patients, versus 0.9% for the comparator Lucentis. Merck said the cases were generally manageable, but the drug was not superior to Lucentis on any secondary measure, and roughly 5% of remigromig patients discontinued treatment compared with 1% in the comparator group.
Amgen and AstraZeneca reported Phase 3 results for Tezspire in eosinophilic esophagitis, showing nearly 70% of patients on the highest dose were in remission at 24 weeks, versus 3.5% on placebo. Analysts noted that this compares favorably to Dupixent in cross-trial data. Separately, the FDA approved Asahi Kasei's Hovilpri for herpes simplex lesions in immunocompromised patients whose infections don't respond to other antivirals, marking the first new therapy with a novel mechanism in nearly three decades.