The latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector, published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires.

1032 ET – UCB's portfolio offers growth potential into the next decade after the acquisitions of Candid Therapeutics and Neurona, so the Belgian drugmaker's next deals might target early-stage assets, Bank of America analysts say. Data due next year from a midstage trial of its galvokimig eczema drug candidate will likely inform UCB's decision on whether it needs to add further late-stage medicines to its pipeline over time, the analysts say. UCB executives seemed confident at a Bank of America event that the company's top-selling product Bimzelx can withstand competition from new drugs, the analysts say in a research note. Shares rise 0.6%.

0955 ET – Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan is confident in the midterm outlook for the company, with drug launches set to lift top-line growth next year, Bank of America analysts say. Speaking at a Bank of America conference, Narasimhan struck a bullish tone on the Swiss drugmaker's prospects for the 2026-31 period and signaled previous guidance of sales growth of 5% to 6% in the five years through 2030 would be extended to 2031 at an update scheduled for November, the analysts say. Sales growth looks set to accelerate next year relative to the second half of 2026, when the company expects to post a mid single-digit percentage increase, and its performance at the end of the fourth quarter will be the best proxy, the analysts add. Shares rise 1.5%.

0931 ET – The healthcare and life-sciences sector is increasingly turning to AI, but the technology's impact on drug discovery remains in the second or third inning, analysts at Citi say in a research note. "AI's initial impact is likely to be on productivity, speed, and cost avoidance vs. an improvement in [research-and-development] success rates," Citi says. Still, AI is starting to seep into the clinical setting and reshaping biopharma, the analysts say. Big pharma companies increasingly view AI as a tool to enable identification of targets for new drugs, design new medicines and develop them, they add.