Shares of Eli Lilly $LLY tumbled close to 2% on Thursday in a toxic reaction to its mixed revenue performance in the face of the pandemic during Q2. But investors found solace in a promising Phase III readout for Jardiance, as their blockbuster continues to blaze a trail to much bigger markets.

Their SGLT2 inhibitor beat out a placebo in reducing the risk for the composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalization due to heart failure, when added to standard of care. The drug hit the primary endpoint, added Lilly, noting that the full data readout will come at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress at the end of August.

Phase III advance trial data for AbbVie’s migraine prevention drug atogepant look good — but are the results good enough to rival Biohaven’s two-in-one treatment and prevention drug, rimegepant, sold as Nurtec?

AbbVie picked up atogepant from Allergan in a $63 billion buyout last year. It also claimed the Botox franchise and $16 billion in annual revenue.

Vamil Divan, an equity research analyst with Mizuho Financial Group, said atogepant and rimegepant are “natural competitors”: two oral drugs that could hit the market around the same time. Nurtec took the lead with FDA approval in February. Atogepant met primary and secondary endpoints in pivotal Phase III testing, and Illinois-based AbbVie is pushing for regulatory submissions in the US and abroad.

GlaxoSmithKline R&D chief Hal Barron has tossed a lineup of COPD drugs out of the pipeline in the latest shift away from respiratory diseases. And there was a cancer drug as well as an HIV program in the mix of the nixed.

Barron was quick to highlight his focus on oncology after he took the reins at GSK’s big R&D group, expecting to scale down in respiratory, where GSK has had some successes and many setbacks.

Three months after announcing the results of a landmark trial, Thrive Earlier Detection has raised $257 million to put their liquid biopsy cancer test into a pivotal trial.

Thrive started raising for the Series B immediately after the study results were published in Science at the end of April. That study, run across 10,000 women at the Geisinger Health System, showed for the first time that a blood test could help doctors diagnose certain types of cancer in patients who did not yet show symptoms, more than doubling the percentage of cancers that were detected.

Back in March, AstraZeneca announced plans to halt a Phase III trial for its Farxiga drug ahead of schedule after seeing “overwhelming efficacy” in patients with chronic kidney disease. Now, the British drugmaker is claiming a win after the drug met all primary and secondary endpoints.

The trial confirmed Farxiga, an SGLT2 inhibitor used to treat adults with type 2 diabetes, helped halt kidney disease progression. AstraZeneca tracked a composite primary endpoint that combined measurements on whether renal function improved and whether the drug reduced the risk of renal failure. The trial hit that endpoint.

Versant Ventures is debuting another biotech upstart this morning that its partners believe has big potential for developing pipelines in products created by its own unique platform tech. And they have their sights set first on one of the hottest targets in immuno-oncology.

The company is Bright Peak Therapeutics, launched out of Versant’s Ridgeline Therapeutics Discovery Engine in Basel, which is growing clinical development roots in San Diego. And they have $35 million of Versant A round cash to fund their drive to the clinic.