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Debut Biotech, a company innovating new molecules, is partnering with Image Skincare to launch a new beauty product, CNBC has learned.
The San Diego-based company uses biotechnology and artificial intelligence to identify, cultivate, copy and scale ingredients that occur naturally into formulations for skincare.
Experts say biotechnology is shaping up to be the future of the beauty industry at large — and that brands like Sephora and Ulta will need to take notice.

A Debut Biotech petri dish.
Courtesy: Debut Biotech

In a lab tucked away in southern California, scientists at Debut Biotech are testing molecules using advanced biotechnology to create new skincare formulations.
The San Diego-based company, founded nearly seven years ago, is pioneering new ingredients to specially target various aspects of skin health. One of the company’s latest innovations, an ingredient named EDL, will be used in a new skin-tightening product with Image Skincare scheduled to hit the shelves next year, CNBC has learned.

“The reason why we exist is we do believe that biology can make better things and it can deliver sustainable performance alternatives to what’s currently available for the world,” CEO Joshua Britton told CNBC.
The company focuses on identifying and copying molecules found in nature, refining and scaling those ingredients for their specific skin longevity benefits, and formulating them into products that satisfy consumer needs. Britton defined biotechnology as the use of advanced tech to “discover, validate and commercialize higher performing ingredients.” 
But Debut’s “secret sauce,” he added, is the company’s vertically integrated company structure, which ensures it can perform its research and development and also see its products into the supply chain, all in-house.
“Like pharmaceutical companies, they own their manufacturing processes, they own the making of the product, they own the marketing around the product and they sell directly to doctors,” Britton said. “And so the synthetic biology industry had to learn that, overcome those issues, but now it’s taken off, and we’re seeing real change.”
Debut then works with its slate of clients, from beauty giant L’Oreal to smaller brands like Reome, to incorporate its ingredients into products and formulations.

Because of its vertical integration structure, Debut is able to speed up its process, Britton said, with iteration cycles taking just one to two weeks, allowing the company to ensure its discoveries make it directly into the hands of consumers.
“The investor base on the private and public side has always seen the promise of biotechnology but have always invested into companies who are horizontal and have unfortunately lost a lot of money,” Britton said. “But now the investors are starting to see things turn up in the supermarket, in the local market, in supply chains — we’re about to see this resurgence of biotechnology, and the resurgence this time will have a product focus, not a science focus.”
That structure is becoming increasingly important for beauty brands, according to Lindy Firstenberg, AlixPartners’ senior vice president of beauty and luxury. The consumer base is becoming more educated about the products they’re putting on their skin, with the rise of what Firstenberg calls the “consumer Ph.D.” 
With the more knowledgeable customer, she said, comes a greater demand for hard science typically seen in the pharmaceutical sector. 
“Because of that, you’ve seen this rise of vertical integration, and what it’s really doing is it’s delivering for the customer what they’re really asking for,” she told CNBC. “Because these consumers are asking for holistic programs, they’re thinking about infusions, injectables, ingestibles, topicals, tool therapy; they’re really looking for absolutely everything.”
In a world in which beauty and wellness have become deeply ingrained and intertwined with everyday routines, Firstenberg said she believes biotechnology in the industry is not just a fad and instead here to stay.
“I actually do think that you’ll end up having these beauty, health and wellness companies that are integrated, and they have different delivery methodologies and different delivery systems, because you’re going to have fewer beauty, health and wellness companies that can actually do it,” Firstenberg said. “The ones that can do it are really, really going to set themselves apart.”

Inside a lab at Debut Biotech with CEO Joshua Britton.
Courtesy: Debut Biotech

New innovations

Some of Debut’s ingredients are already on the market. Earlier this year, it partnered with Reome to introduce an ingredient named DHK, targeting skin barrier repair and derived from the Joshua Tree cactus in the desert.
Reome founder Joanna Ellner said using natural ingredients alone often produces inconsistent results based on varying harvests and can harm the environment, but biotech allows Reome to use those components in a more sustainable and consistent way.
“Based on the delivery system of biotech ingredients, we have the power to hit new levels of efficacy within skincare that have never been possible before,” Ellner told CNBC. 
The company’s eye cream, featuring Debut’s DHK molecule, focuses on firming the skin around the eyes, and Ellner said it is 1.3 times more effective than standard ingredients like vitamin C. 
“For me, the thrill is we are genuinely working with new ingredients, and we are generally at the very sharp end of innovation,” Ellner said. “We are not combining a bunch of pre-existing ingredients together and calling it a new word or some kind of compound — this is real.”
The new collaboration with Image Skincare features Debut’s EDL ingredient, which focuses on the viral topic of skin tightening. The company, which most recently developed a topical product to firm skin for GLP-1 patients experiencing rapid weight loss, aims to be at the forefront of innovation and new trends, according to CEO Sennen Pamich.
The new partnership with Debut aligned with just that, he added.
In initial clinical trials, Pamich said the company has seen the product’s ability to enhance skin longevity and vitality when combined with Image’s pre-existing formulations, including its technology that allows antioxidants to deeply penetrate the skin.
“There is a very high level of application of biotech in the pharmaceutical world, right? So why not in skincare and beauty?” Pamich said. 

Future of biotech

Debut is still in the lab developing more biotech ingredients to target specific consumer concerns, like its new PNAR ingredient, which helps with hyperpigmentation. 
While that process could take other companies close to two decades, the use of artificial intelligence and biotech to arrive at these ingredients allows Debut’s process to take just around a year, Britton added.
And that speed, efficiency and accuracy is why he believes biotech is the future of innovation, not just in beauty. While Debut chose the beauty sector specifically for its higher margins, Britton said he can see vertical integration and biotech being useful in a variety of other industries, like nutrition.

A lab at Debut Biotech.
Courtesy: Debut Biotech

That sentiment was echoed by Oliver Wright, Accenture’s global consumer industries lead, who emphasized that the technology’s ability to create targeted molecules while prioritizing sustainability will allow it to flourish.
According to research from Accenture, demand for bioengineered ingredients is expected to grow 15% to 20% annually through 2026, driven by Gen Z’s trust in science-backed solutions. The market for biotech skincare is expected to surpass $8 billion by 2031, according to Precision Business Insights.
“Biotech is about enhancing nature’s products – yes, it takes place in labs, but it is fundamentally about taking a human product that exists in nature and actually making sure that you refine that and create it for human benefit,” Wright told CNBC. “So people don’t need to be scared of it in the way that they might do otherwise.”
In other words, this new technology is moving the needle — and beauty giants like Sephora and Ulta will need to take notice and shape their messaging for consumers who may be overwhelmed by the plethora of options, Wright said. 
Still, the next step is toward the “holy grail of cosmetics,” he said: personalized beauty. With the advent of generative AI and consumers’ growing knowledge of science and technology, Wright said he expects there to be a broadening of the definition of beauty to encapsulate wellness. 
“I think the destination here is going to be the increasing ability for us to tailor this through diagnostics, through, therefore, product selection, but then increasingly towards actual personalization,” Wright said. “I think in effect, if we fast forward 10 years, that will be the normal in the industry.” More

Chad Phillips, global head of Nuveen Real Estate, says grocery-anchored, open-air strip centers present big opportunity.
Vacancy rates in these spaces were 7.8% at the start of 2016, but came down to 4.4% by the beginning of this year, according to data from CoStar Group.
Phillips said he likes this smaller sector because they’re “bite-sized deals” and they strip centers are often in the customer’s path of convenience.

An open-air strip retail center in Richmond, Virginia.
Courtesy of Nuveen

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
It would be an understatement to say that retail real estate has had a rough ride. It started with the birth of e-commerce and escalated with the Covid-19 pandemic. Its recovery has been splintered, given the varying subsectors of retail, from large indoor malls to big-box centers to grocery-anchored, open-air strip centers.

It’s that last subsector that Chad Phillips, global head of Nuveen Real Estate and responsible for over $140 billion of commercial real estate equity and debt investments, says is the big opportunity today. 
“We’ve leaned into this resilient, open-air strategy the last two years pretty heavily,” said Phillips. 
That’s grocery-anchored centers with, perhaps, a CVS and a pizza place and the like. Vacancy rates in these spaces were 7.8% at the start of 2016, but came down to 4.4% by the beginning of this year, according to data from CoStar Group.
“It survived Covid. It survived the Amazon effect,” Phillips said. “The occupancies within our grocery-anchored, open-air portfolio in good locations is over 95% leased.”
Whenever a tenant closes its doors, Nuveen is able to refill the spot quickly due to such strong demand, Phillips said. 

He admitted that retail real estate had been overbuilt for a long time in the U.S. Eventually, developers became more disciplined, especially with the birth of e-commerce. That resulted in a correction that created something of an undersupply today. 
“The [capitalization] rates that you can buy them at are fairly attractive,” said Phillips. “So the total returns are good. You’re buying at far less than replacement cost. So you put it all together, and it’s a very resilient, essential real estate need where we can make strong, risk-adjusted returns.”
While larger, indoor mall traffic is rising, especially in the highest-end malls, Phillips said he likes this smaller sector because they’re “bite-sized deals.” You can sell them easily. They’re liquid. Malls are not. 
It’s also a factor of simple supply and demand. Roughly 15 years ago, allocations to retail were over 30% for real estate investors, but that dropped to 10% because the returns were weak, according to Nuveen. Now, in just the last 12 months, the returns are improving, and investors are looking again. 
“I wouldn’t say they’re flooding back, but we’ve raised year-to-date [for] convenience-based retail $1.4 billion of equity with leverage,” Phillips said. “That puts us over $2.5 billion of buying power for these types of strategies. So yeah, I do think that investors are turning their heads.” 

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This is not to say that the sector, like any other, is not without risk. After a few years of outperformance, it’s starting to slow down.
“After five years of consistent demand and rent growth, fundamentals are softening,” wrote Brandon Svec, national director of U.S. retail analytics at CoStar Group in a recent company newsletter, noting vacancy rates in grocery-anchored, open-air spaces have ticked up for three consecutive quarters. (Though they’re still near historic lows.)
But Svec added that the broader retail leasing environment tells a different story.
“With little new retail space expected to be added over the next few years, and availability conditions sitting near historically tight levels, retailers are staying active in their pursuit of new locations,” Svec said. 
He also said there’s concern about the state of the overall economy, consumer confidence and consumer spending. 
After strong rent growth in previous years for the grocery-anchored, open-air subsector, it has stalled this year, with annual rent growth the weakest in more than a decade. This is a clear departure from prior years, Svec emphasized.
Phillips said that’s why the strategy requires that investors be particularly picky about the properties. 
Consumer confidence ebbs and flows, and that has an impact on whether they’re going to go to these centers for coffee or to get a manicure. The existing customer base, namely those with higher savings rates who can withstand higher unemployment, are vital to choosing where to invest. 
Phillips said an average household income of over $100,000 and a largely millennial, well-educated population are among the criteria he looks for. 
Competition among investors is rising, but not to the point where good deals can’t get done, he said, citing low, double-digit returns. 
He added low levels of new construction are helping to keep vacancies down, and the spaces draw consistent crowds.
“I do think it’s a lot about convenience and being in the path of that convenience, and that’s where we want to invest,” said Phillips. More

CVS Health reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that blew past estimates and raised its adjusted profit outlook, as the company sees improvement in its insurance unit.
The quarterly results cap David Joyner’s first full year as CEO of the company, which struggled to drive higher profits and improve its stock performance under Karen Lynch.
Joyner highlighted recovery in Aetna, the company’s insurer, a “really good sales season” for the company’s pharmacy benefit manager, Caremark, and a $5.7 billion goodwill impairment charge related to the health care delivery reporting unit.

Signage for a CVS pharmacy in Takoma Park, Maryland, US, on Wednesday, July 9, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

CVS Health on Wednesday reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that blew past estimates and raised its adjusted profit outlook, as the company sees improvement in its insurance unit.
Still, shares of CVS fell more than 3% in premarket trading Wednesday as the company posted a net loss during the quarter, which reflects a $5.7 billion goodwill impairment charge related to the health care services segment’s health care delivery reporting unit.

The quarterly results cap David Joyner’s first full year as CEO of the company, which struggled to drive higher profits and improve its stock performance under its last top executive, Karen Lynch. Joyner is executing aggressive efforts to turn the flailing drugstore chain around – from executive reshuffling to cost cuts – and they already seem to be paying off, with shares up more than 85% for the year.
The company now expects fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings of $6.55 to $6.65 per share, up from previous guidance of $6.30 to $6.40 per share. CVS has now hiked its outlook for three consecutive quarters.
“[I] couldn’t be more happy about the fact that this is three quarters where we’ve had a beat and raise and obviously, looking into Q4, we feel really, really good about our ability to close out the year favorably,” Joyner said in an interview. 
He pointed to several factors, including recovery in Aetna, the company’s insurer. Aetna and other insurers have grappled with higher-than-expected medical costs over the last year as more Medicare Advantage patients return to hospitals for procedures they delayed during the pandemic. While medical costs remain high, Aetna and other insurers, such as UnitedHealthcare, appear to be becoming better equipped to navigate the issue moving forward.
Joyner also highlighted a “really good sales season” for its pharmacy benefit manager, Caremark, and the goodwill impairment charge related to the health care delivery reporting unit.

Here’s what CVS reported for the third quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

Earnings per share: $1.60 adjusted vs. $1.37 expected
Revenue: $102.87 billion vs. $98.85 billion expected

The company posted net loss of $3.99 billion, or $3.13 per share, for the third quarter. That compares with net income of $71 million, or 7 cents per share, for the same period a year ago. 
In a release, CVS said the loss reflects the goodwill impairment charge related to the health care delivery reporting unit, which has “continued to experience challenges which have impacted its ability to grow the business at the rate previously estimated.” The company made several changes to that segment’s management team and finalized strategic changes, including plans to reduce the number of primary care clinics it would open in 2026 and beyond. 
“We’ve effectively made the decision this quarter to both slow the clinic growth and also close some of the underperforming clinics,” Joyner said. He noted that CVS has announced that it will close 16 locations of primary care provider Oak Street Health. 
But Joyner said “this does not change our views of value-based care,” noting that Oak Street Health is “actually performing according to plan.” 
Excluding certain items, such as amortization of intangible assets, restructuring charges and capital losses, adjusted earnings were $1.60 per share for the quarter.
CVS booked sales of $102.87 billion for the third quarter, up 7.8% from the same period a year ago as all three of its business segments grew. Wall Street didn’t expect CVS to reach quarterly sales of more than $100 billion until the fourth quarter, according to StreetAccount estimates. 

Growth across business units

All three of CVS’ business units beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations for the third quarter, with notable improvements in the insurance business. 
The insurance segment’s medical benefit ratio – a measure of total medical expenses paid relative to premiums collected – decreased to 92.8% from 95.2 % a year earlier. A lower ratio typically indicates that a company collected more in premiums than it paid out in benefits, resulting in higher profitability.
That ratio is slightly higher than the 92.4% that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.
CVS said that was driven by the “favorable year-over-year impact of premium deficiency reserves recorded as health care costs” and improved underlying performance in the insurance unit’s government business, among other factors. Premium deficiency reserves refers to a liability that an insurer may need to cover if future premiums are not enough to pay for anticipated claims and expenses.
Aetna’s government business serves plans including Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug, or Part D, plans.
The insurance business booked $35.99 billion in revenue during the quarter, up more than 9% from the third quarter of 2024. Analysts expected the unit to take in $34.48 billion for the period, according to estimates from StreetAccount.
CVS said that growth was driven by increases in the government business, largely due to the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on the Medicare Part D program. Provisions of that law have contributed to increases in some Medicare Part D premiums.
CVS’ pharmacy and consumer wellness division posted $36.21 billion in sales for the third quarter, up 11.7% from the same period a year earlier.
CVS said the increase came partly from higher prescription volume, including from the company’s acquisition of prescriptions from Rite Aid, but offset by pharmacy reimbursement pressure. Analysts expected sales of $35.6 billion for the quarter, StreetAccount said.
That unit dispenses prescriptions in CVS’ more than 9,000 retail pharmacies and provides other pharmacy services, such as vaccinations and diagnostic testing.
CVS’ health services segment generated $49.27 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 11.6% compared with the same quarter in 2024. Analysts expected the unit to post $45.71 billion in sales for the period, according to StreetAccount.
That unit includes Caremark, which negotiates drug discounts with manufacturers on behalf of insurance plans and creates lists of medications, or formularies, that are covered by insurance and reimburses pharmacies for prescriptions.
— CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report More

Lucid Group is targeting being the first automaker to offer highly advanced self-driving capabilities in its vehicles in the coming years.
The all-electric vehicle manufacturer expects to launch what it’s calling “mind-off” driving in which a car can essentially drive itself under normal circumstances.
Marc Winterhoff, interim CEO of Lucid, said the plan is to launch the new system “definitely in the coming years,” but he declined to specify an exact timeframe.

The Lucid display is seen at the New York International Auto Show on April 16, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC

Lucid Group is targeting a new goal that would make it the first automaker to offer highly advanced self-driving capabilities in its vehicles in the coming years, the company said Tuesday.
The all-electric vehicle manufacturer expects to launch what it’s calling “mind-off” driving in which a car can essentially drive itself under normal circumstances without a human needing to monitor it or intervene unless there’s a change in circumstances, such as severe weather. That would be like an occupant playing a game of cards or watching TV while the car is driving.

Lucid on Tuesday said it plans to leverage Nvidia’s “Drive AV” platform and multisensor suite that includes cameras, radar, and lidar — or light detection and sensing, which allows the vehicle to better “see” its surroundings — for the forthcoming system.
Marc Winterhoff, interim CEO of Lucid, said the plan is to debut the new system “definitely in the coming years,” but he declined to specify an exact timeframe other than it won’t be in 2026. The system is first planned for Lucid’s upcoming midsize vehicle before it would expand to other models, he said.
“I want to make sure that we can offer this for our customers in a timeframe that I think is very ambitious, but at the same time, also we’re realistic,” Winterhoff told CNBC. “The main reason why I decided to not start from scratch, just do it ourselves, it’s simply time to market. … Also, it would cost a lot of money.”
Winterhoff said Nvidia’s technologies will be a catalyst for the system, while Lucid plans to actually execute the self-driving technology.
In the meantime, Winterhoff said Lucid plans to continue to increase the automated technologies on its current vehicles — the Air sedan and Gravity SUV — in partnership with Nvidia.

A Lucid-supplied teaser image of its upcoming midsize vehicle behind its current Gravity SUV.

“It will be a stepping stone,” said Winterhoff, who has served as interim CEO since company founder Peter Rawlinson left as chief executive in February.
Many companies, including General Motors and Tesla, have promised personal self-driving vehicles but have failed to deliver. Automakers have invested billions of dollars working on autonomous vehicles in recent years, with most pulling back spending after years of trying to deploy the technologies.
What Lucid is aiming to launch is what the industry refers to as “Level 4: High Driving Automation.” As defined by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, Level 4 technologies should not require monitoring or human intervention under certain, but not all, conditions.
There are a limited number of Level 4 vehicles currently on U.S. roadways. Most notably, Alphabet’s Waymo operates robotaxis in a variety of cities. Lucid is saying it plans to be the first for a consumer vehicle.
Achieving such a system for Lucid will be daunting, especially given its track record on advanced driver assistance system, or ADAS.
The company, by its own admission, has not lived up to its customers’ expectations. It has been slow to release systems capable of hands-free driving, like many companies offer, or compete with well-known “Level 2” technologies such as GM’s “Super Cruise” or Tesla’s “Autopilot” or “FSD.”
Meanwhile, it’s set to be a record year for EV sales, but demand for all-electric cars is expected to decline with the end of federal incentives of up to $7,500.
Lucid announced the self-driving technology plans as well as other initiatives in conjunction with the Nvidia GTC global artificial intelligence conference taking place this week in Washington, D.C. More

Air traffic controllers are among the employees required to work during the shutdown even though they’re not receiving regular paychecks.
Some controllers, which are already in short supply, are taking second jobs to make ends meet, union officials said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the shutdown is hurting government efforts to recruit and train air traffic controllers.

A person rides an electric scooter past the air traffic control tower at Reagan Washington National Airport as the U.S. government shutdown continues in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., Oct. 8, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters

U.S. air traffic controllers Tuesday missed their first full paychecks since the government shutdown began at the start of the month, while the Department of Transportation said flight delays due to staffing shortages have increased.
The controllers are facing increased financial stress and it’s getting harder to recruit much-needed workers, union officials and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday. Air traffic controllers and airport security screeners are among the employees required to work during the shutdown as essential employees, even though they’re not getting regular paychecks.

“The problems are mounting daily,” said Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, at a news conference at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration warned about staffing shortages at airports serving Philadelphia, Denver and airspace over a large swath of the Western U.S. that could disrupt flights on Tuesday.
Duffy told reporters that 44% of the flight delays on Sunday, and about 24% of them on Monday, were due to air traffic controller staffing, compared with around 5% of the delays so far this year.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy holds a press conference on the impact of the government shutdown on air travel, at LaGuardia Airport in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., October 28, 2025.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

Duffy also said that the shutdown is hurting government air traffic training and recruiting, and that some funds for trainee stipends are “about to run out.”
Air traffic controller union officials have said that some members have been driving for ride-hailing platforms and taking other jobs to make ends meet.

Members of the union, including its president, plan to hand out leaflets and speak to the public at several airports across the U.S. on Tuesday, urging travelers to push Congress to end the shutdown.

Read more CNBC airline news

The government shutdown, entering its fourth week, has added to concerns about additional strain on the U.S. air traffic control system, which has challenged airlines and travelers alike because of years of understaffing.
Flights earlier this month were delayed at several U.S. airports but the severe disruptions that preceded the end of the longest-ever shutdown, between late 2018 and early 2019, have not occurred. More

Eli Lilly and Nvidia are partnering to build what the companies call the pharmaceutical industry’s “most powerful” supercomputer and so-called AI factory to help accelerate drug discovery and development across the broader sector.
It’s the latest stride by Nvidia and the pharmaceutical industry to harness AI to try to shorten the time it takes to bring cures to patients, while reducing costs at every stage of the drug discovery and development process.
The supercomputer will power the AI factory, a specialized computing infrastructure that will develop, train and deploy AI models at scale for drug discovery and development.

Lilly Chair and CEO Dave Ricks speaks during a press conference for Eli Lilly and Company in Houston, Texas, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.
Antranik Tavitian | Reuters

Eli Lilly and Nvidia are partnering to build what they call the pharmaceutical industry’s “most powerful” supercomputer and so-called AI factory to help accelerate drug discovery and development across the sector, the companies announced Tuesday. 
It’s the latest stride by Nvidia and the pharmaceutical industry to harness AI to help shorten the time it takes to bring cures to patients, while reducing costs at every stage of drug discovery and development. The process typically takes about 10 years on average from dosing the first human with a drug to its launch on the market, said Diogo Rau, Eli Lilly’s chief information and digital officer, in an interview. 

Eli Lilly expects to complete the buildout of the supercomputer and AI factory in December. They will go online in January. But the new tools likely won’t yield significant returns for the company’s business and that of any other drugmaker until the end of the decade.
“The things that we’re talking about discovering with this kind of power that we have right now, we’re really going to see those benefits in 2030,” Rau said. 
The industry’s efforts to use AI to bring medicines to people faster are still in the early stages. There are no drugs on the market designed using AI, but progress is evident in the number of AI-discovered drugs entering clinical trials, recent AI-focused investments and partnerships among drugmakers.
Eli Lilly will own and operate the supercomputer, which will be powered by more than 1,000 Blackwell Ultra GPUs – a newer family of chips from Nvidia – connected on a unified, high-speed network. The supercomputer will power the AI factory, a specialized computing infrastructure that will develop, train and deploy AI models at scale for drug discovery and development.
The supercomputer “is really a novel scientific instrument. It’s like an enormous microscope for biologists,” said Eli Lilly’s Chief AI Officer Thomas Fuchs. “It really allows us to do things we couldn’t do before at that enormous scale. 

Scientists will be able to train AI models on millions of experiments to test potential medicines, “dramatically expanding the scope and sophistication” of drug discovery, according to a release from Eli Lilly. 
While finding new drugs isn’t the only focus of the new tools, it is “where the big opportunity is,” said Rau.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to discover new molecules that we never would have with humans alone,” he said. 
Several AI models will be available on Lilly TuneLab, an AI and machine learning platform that allows biotech companies to access drug discovery models that Eli Lilly has trained on years of its proprietary research. That data is worth $1 billion.
Eli Lilly launched that platform in September as a way to expand access to drug discovery tools across the sector. 
“It’s really powerful to be able to give that extra starting point to these startups that, you know, otherwise could take a couple of years burning their capital to get to that point,” said Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, adding that the company is “delighted to participate” in that effort. 
In exchange for access to the AI models, biotech companies are expected to contribute some of their own research and data to help train them, Rau noted. The TuneLab platform employs so-called federated learning, which means that companies can take advantage of Lilly’s AI models without either side directly sharing data.
Eli Lilly also plans to use the supercomputer to shorten drug development and help get treatments to people faster. 
The company said new scientific AI agents can support researchers, and advanced medical imaging can give scientists a clearer view of how diseases progress and help them develop new biomarkers — a measurable sign of a biological process or condition — for personalized care. 
“We would actually like to deliver on that promise of precision medicine,” Powell said. “Without an AI infrastructure and foundation, we’ll never get there, right? So we’re doing all of the necessary building, and now we’re seeing this true lift off, and Lilly is an exact example of that.”
Precision medicine is an approach that tailors disease prevention and treatment according to differences in a person’s genes, environments, and lifestyles. More

Home prices rose nationally in August, but the growth is weakening and is slower than the rate of inflation.
Prices rose the most in the New York metropolitan area in August, with a 6.1% annual gain, followed by Chicago at 5.9% and Cleveland at 4.7%.
The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage started June at just below 7% and fell to 6.5% by the end of August, according to Mortgage News Daily.

Homes in the south suburban Chicago area on April 26, 2023.
Brian Cassella | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

A home is most Americans’ single largest investment. The returns are losing ground.
Home prices nationally rose 1.5% in August compared with the same month last year, down from the 1.6% annual gain recorded in July, according to the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index.

While home prices aren’t yet falling, they’re weakening — rising at a slower pace than the current 3% rate of inflation. That means that housing wealth eroded in real terms for the fourth consecutive month, according to the index.
Home prices in nearly all of the metropolitan markets highlighted in the index fell month to month in August. Only Chicago saw price gains. Home prices are seasonal and usually drop this time of year, but this weakness was more significant than typical seasonal patterns.
Much of that is due to stubbornly high mortgage rates, which stagnated over the summer, when much of this index was measured. (The index is a three-month running average.) Rates have since declined, but not by a lot. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage started June at just below 7% and fell to 6.5% by the end of August, according to Mortgage News Daily. It is now at 6.19%.
“Mortgage rates remaining above 6.5% continue to weigh on buyer demand, even during what should be the busy summer season. The combination of high financing costs and prices that remain near record highs has limited transaction activity,” wrote Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a news release.
August prices rose the most in the New York metropolitan area, with a 6.1% annual gain, followed by Chicago at 5.9% and Cleveland at 4.7%. On the flip side, prices in Tampa, Florida, fell 3.3% year over year, Phoenix dropped 1.7% and Miami declined 1.7%.

There was also weakness in the West, with prices in San Francisco down 1.5%, Denver fell 0.7% and San Diego dropped 0.7%. Seattle also turned very slightly negative.

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“Markets that experienced the sharpest pandemic-era gains are now seeing the largest corrections, while more affordable metros with stable local economies are holding up better,” Godec said. “This adjustment may ultimately lead to a more sustainable market, but for now, homeowners are watching their real equity erode while buyers face the dual challenge of elevated prices and high borrowing costs.”
A separate survey from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA, that measures prices of homes with conforming loans showed house prices rose 2.3% in August year over year and 0.4% from July.
“This relative strength on a month-on-month basis reverses the recent weak trend and shows some stabilization in home prices across the US after several months of month-on-month declines,” said Eugenio Aleman, chief economist at Raymond James, in a statement. “We may see some more stability in home price appreciation during the rest of the year as the effects of lower mortgage interest rates support increased housing activity.” More

A new kind of instant gratification is catching on in India. Urban consumers, who have grown accustomed to groceries and gadgets arriving within minutes, can now order slimmer waistlines almost as quickly. Online pharmacies promise same-day delivery of weight-loss injections, and demand is booming. In March Eli Lilly, an American drugmaker, began selling Mounjaro, its obesity treatment, in India. A month’s supply costs about $180—a quarter of the price in America, though still steep for most Indians. Even so, by September it was the country’s second-bestselling branded medicine. More