Sector Update: Healthcare Stocks Advance Wednesday Afternoon

02:06 PM EDT, 10/28/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Healthcare stocks rose Wednesday afternoon, with the NYSE Healthcare Index up 0.2% and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) adding 0.4%. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) climbed up 1.9%. In corporate news, Eli Lilly (LLY) said data from a phase 3 head-to-head trial showed retatrutide delivered greater A1C reduction and "substantially" more weight loss than Novo Nordisk's (NVO) injectable Ozempic 2 mg in adults with type 2 diabetes at 80 weeks. Lilly shares were up 0.5%, and Novo was down 1.4%. Boston Scientific (BSX) lowered its full-year financial outlook amid the impact of a cybersecurity incident earlier this year, while the medical device maker's Q3 earnings fell year over year. Its shares fell 3.8%. Anthropic said Tuesday that its Claude AI model helped biotech partners accelerate drug discovery, improve potential medicines and reduce regulatory paperwork. The company said that over the past several months, its scientists have worked with six organizations developing new medicines: BigHat Biosciences, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Divergence Labs, Enveda, Generate Biomedicines and The Column Group. Bristol Myers Squibb shares were down 1.4%.