Novartis AG is paying nearly $1 billion up front to buy privately held Anthos Therapeutics Inc. in a deal that eventually could top out around $3.1 billion. Novartis and Blackstone Life Sciences founded Anthos in 2019. Anthos is developing abelacimab, a monoclonal antibody factor XI inhibitor designed to encourage anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation. Abelacimab is in three ongoing phase III studies for those who could develop venous clots. Novartis is paying Anthos $925 million up front, with as much as $2.15 billion available that Anthos could earn in regulatory and sales milestones.

US NIH slashing of indirect rates far from final

The immediate implementation of the U.S. NIH’s plan to cut indirect costs included in its grants to 15% was quickly halted Feb. 10 when a federal district judge granted a temporary restraining order in the 22 states challenging the cuts that would have applied to existing and new NIH grants. Judge Angel Kelley gave the federal government until Friday to reply. Calling the NIH plan “poorly conceived,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she expressed her opposition to the cuts to Robert Kennedy, who is awaiting confirmation as the next Health and Human Services secretary. “He has promised that as soon as he is confirmed, he will re-examine this initiative that was implemented prior to his confirmation,” Collins said.

BIO CEO 2025: Navigating from policy to innovation to patients

The fast pace in which the Trump administration has rolled out changes to how government and businesses operate – a disruptive effort that appears to be creating a new world order – has caught the attention of biopharma industry leaders who spoke Tuesday at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s CEO and Investor Conference in New York. While unsure of what to expect next, they aim to join in the conversation, to help mold new policy that will support drug development, and to not only place patients at the center of all their efforts, but to do a better job of conveying potential implications for a country that does not support innovation.

BIO CEO 2025: Cognition CEO debates policy while advancing CT-1812

Cognition Therapeutics Inc. evolved from the work of a neuroscientist and a chemist working in the San Francisco Bay area, seeking out targets to block the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Since the company’s 2007 inception, it has received close to $200 million in U.S. NIH grant funding. Investors often tell CEO Lisa Ricciardi, who joined the company in 2020: “’That’s because you have a relationship with the FDA.’ Well, no. It’s because it’s competitive” and the company’s research has met the muster. “You have to apply two or three times. … It’s with rigor that these results are generated and that we’re able to get more funding.” Cognition started with a $700,000 grant and brought its labs to Pittsburgh, which was cheaper than the Bay area. Among the company’s 28 staff, about a dozen, some of whom are senior management like Ricciardi, operate out of Purchase, N.Y. “I always think of this as a classic entrepreneurial story,” Ricciardi told BioWorld outside of the BIO CEO and Investor Conference in New York on Feb. 10.

Third Harmonics sinks on phase I hives data, cutback plans

Shares of Third Harmonic Bio Inc. (NASDAQ:THRD) were trading at $3.43, down $1.22, or 26%, after the firm disclosed a restructuring to focus more tightly on the oral KIT inhibitor THB-335 in chronic spontaneous urticaria, or hives. At the same time, the company made public data from the phase I single and multiple ascending-dose trial in healthy volunteers – findings that support a move into phase II, Third said. One case of liver-enzyme elevation surfaced in the treatment group, but it was not deemed related to the drug. About half the company’s staff will be laid off as Third conducts a strategic review and prepares for the midstage trial.

OLIG2 inhibitor shows promise in treatment-resistant brain tumors in preclinical models

Researchers from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Queensland, Australia and Emory University have shown that a potential new targeted therapy for childhood brain cancer was effective in infiltrating and killing tumor cells in mouse models. Published in Nature Communications, the preclinical study shows that CT-179 (developed by Curtana Pharmaceuticals Inc.) targeted the protein OLIG2, which is a known stem cell marker crucial in the initiation and recurrence of brain cancers.

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4DMT, Abbvie, Acelink, Achieve, Advancell, Alterity, Aro, Arrowhead, Ashvattha, Axsome, Biodexa, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Caliway, Carsgen, Clearside Biomedical, Cosmo, CSL Behring, Eli Lilly, Glenmark, Glox, Grace, Greenwich, Immix, Inmune, Iview, LB, Kadimastem, Kalvista, Keymed, Medincell, Mustang, Nektar, NLS, Oncocyte, Orca, Pliant, Rediopharm, Regeneron, Sarepta, Tempest, Teva