Shares of Synlogic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYBX) tumbled almost 51%, or $1.76, to trade midday at $1.69 on word that the firm will discontinue for futility Synpheny-3, the pivotal study with labafenogene marselecobac (SYNB-1934) as a potential treatment for phenylketonuria (PKU), and will be evaluating strategic options. Cambridge, Mass.-based Synlogic will cease operations and reduce its workforce by more than 90%, retaining only certain employees to help with the wind-down. SYNB-1934 is a genetically engineered probiotic designed to attack PKU by breaking down the amino acid phenylalanine.

Metagenomi, Telomir price IPOs, test preclinical market appetite

Gene editing firm Metagenomi Inc. priced an IPO raising $93.8 million, while Telomir Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company developing small-molecule therapies targeting inflammatory disease, priced a more modest $7 million IPO. While they mark the second and third biopharma IPOs to price this week, and the sixth and seventh, respectively, for 2024, the companies are the first preclinical-stage ventures to test the public markets this year.

IBD chessboard active as Pfizer’s Velsipity finds its place

Drug developers are still on the hunt for better treatments in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with varied mechanisms of action under investigation. The U.S. FDA approval of oral sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulator Velsipity (etrasimod, Pfizer Inc.) for moderately-to-severely active ulcerative colitis last October marked a new entry but the market offers plenty of room for more. Abivax SA is one favored player with obefazimod (ABX-464), a first-in-class oral, small molecule designed to upregulate miR-124 and suppress immune cell-mediated intestinal inflammation.

January biopharma deals exceed $26B, marking sixth-highest month

Biopharma deals in January reached $26.97 billion, marking the sixth-highest month in BioWorld’s records going back to 2016. It is an increase of nearly 25% from the $21.64 billion in deals in January 2023 and also is up from December. Value the first month of the year is more than 2023’s average monthly value of $18.14 billion, and likewise more than the average monthly value of any previous year. While M&As are up 132.61% from January 2023’s $2.8 billion, the $6.52 billion value in the first month of 2024 falls short of December 2023’s $52.02 billion and the 2023 average of $11.65 billion per month.

Enzyme degrader could avoid drug resistance in B-cell cancers

Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) enzyme inhibitors used to treat B-cell cancers, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, also produce resistance by causing mutations in the protein. Now, a study on the BTK degrader NX-2127 showed the compound could be effective in eliminating BTK regardless of its mutations. “We have FDA approval of both covalent and noncovalent enzymatic inhibitors of BTK. So, there is the potential now that patients will become resistant to all existing BTK enzymatic inhibitors,” the co-author Omar Abdel-Wahab, chair of the SKI Molecular Pharmacology Program at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, told BioWorld.

Also in the news

Adverum, Aim, Alligator, Almirall, Amylyx, Auron, Basilea, Beacon, Biocardia, Biodexa, Bioxcel, C-Biomex, Cel-ScI, Evoke, Genenta, Immix, Ionis, Johnson & Johnson, Kowa, Lineage Cell, Nicox, Nippon Shinyaku, Regenxbio, Revalesio, Sensorion, Spexis, Tenax, Tenaya, TME, Vandria, Vicore, YS, Zymedi