Biotech Week Ahead: XLV Beats The Market — Here Are The Stocks, Readouts And Events To Watch Next

• The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) gained 1.8% last week, outperforming the broader market and biotech ETFs.
• Sellas Life Sciences (SLS) will present three preclinical SLS009 pancreatic-cancer studies at an AACR conference.
• The Senate will hold a hearing Thursday on Heidi Overton’s nomination to lead the FDA.

Biotech investors enter a catalyst-heavy week featuring Novo Nordisk’s strategy and pipeline update, Sellas Life Sciences’ SLS009 presentations, a Senate hearing on FDA leadership and at least two clinical updates still guided for the third quarter.

Healthcare Led The Market Last Week

The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) gained 1.8%, outperforming the broader market, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) rose 0.9% and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) slipped 0.09%. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) and SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) added 0.8% and 0.3%, respectively.

This Week’s Biotech Catalyst Calendar 

Novo And Sellas Lead Scientific Calendar

Novo Nordisk (NVO) will hold its 2026 Capital Markets Day in London on Monday as it works to expand beyond the semaglutide franchise behind Ozempic and Wegovy. The event comes amid competition with Eli Lilly (LLY), which sells Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Novo recently adopted the shorter “Novo” brand while retaining Novo Nordisk as its legal name. CEO Mike Doustdar also introduced an updated “Novo Way” centered on customer obsession, competitiveness, clarity, and care and integrity. The company expects to launch CagriSema, its investigational cagrilintide-semaglutide combination, in 2027.

Sellas Life Sciences (SLS) will present three preclinical SLS009 posters at AACR’s pancreatic-cancer conference, which begins Friday in San Diego and runs through Sept. 28. SLS009 blocks CDK9, a protein that helps certain cancer cells survive and multiply. The research will examine its activity in laboratory models of KRAS-mutant pancreatic cancer, including combinations with BET and PARP inhibitors. 

FDA Leadership And Q3 Readouts In Focus 

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on Heidi Overton’s nomination to lead the FDA. The FDA commissioner oversees reviews of drugs, vaccines, biologics and medical devices, along with policies governing clinical trials, manufacturing and post-market safety. 

Scynexis (SCYX) has guided to third-quarter Phase 1 results for intravenous SCY-247 but has not set a release date. The experimental antifungal is being developed for invasive candidiasis and the prevention of invasive fungal disease.

UniQure (QURE) has separately guided to a four-year update from its Phase 1/2 AMT-130 study by quarter-end. The Huntington’s disease gene therapy can reduce production of the mutant huntingtin protein. The firm submitted its AMT-130 biologics license application earlier this month using three-year clinical data compared with an external control. The filing is complete, leaving the four-year update as the remaining quarter-end event.

Biotech IPO Pipeline Updates

Electra Therapeutics (ETRA) enters its first full week of trading after raising $350 million by selling 14 million shares at $25 each. The stock closed its Friday debut 12% below the IPO price. Electra’s pipeline is led by Veligrotug, an antibody for immune-related diseases.

Retension Pharmaceuticals and TRex Bio also filed for U.S. IPOs on Friday. Retension plans to list under RTSN and is developing cardiovascular drug RTN-001. TRex plans to trade under TRXB and is developing autoimmune and inflammatory-disease treatment TRB-061. Eli Lilly plans to invest in TRex alongside the offering.

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