Sector Update: Healthcare Stocks Edge Lower Late Afternoon

03:45 PM EDT, 09/16/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Healthcare stocks were slightly lower late Wednesday afternoon, with the NYSE Healthcare Index fractionally down and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) easing 0.1%. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) was 0.2% lower. In corporate news, Novo Nordisk (NVO) is collaborating with AI firm Anthropic to try to address key drug discovery challenges, develop targeted solutions and accelerate the development of new medicines, the companies said Wednesday. Novo shares were shedding 2.4%. Twist Bioscience (TWST) shares gained 1.5% after the company said it has agreed to provide antibody characterization data services to Lilly TuneLab, an AI drug discovery platform created by Eli Lilly (LLY). Lilly shares were down 0.2%. Sanofi (SNY) said Wednesday it has opened the Charles Best Building flu vaccine manufacturing facility in the Sanofi Toronto campus that will make its Fluzone High-Dose influenza vaccine. Sanofi shares were up 0.5%. DataMEDS AI (MEDS) shares surged 305% after it said late Tuesday it has completed the acquisition of AI cancer diagnostics laboratory business Helomics Corporation from Axe Compute (AGPU).