Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH’s start to the new year includes two fresh deals across two continents. BI struck one deal with Kunshan, China-based Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co. Ltd. and its Mölndal, Sweden-based subsidiary, Ribocure Pharmaceuticals AB, to develop small interfering RNA (siRNA) treatments for nonalcoholic or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. It struck a second deal with San Francisco-based 3T Biosciences Inc. to develop cancer immunotherapies, which builds on an earlier collaboration formed last year. Combined, the two deals are worth more than $2.5 billion.
Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co. Ltd. and Ribocure AB have entered into a collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG to develop novel treatments for nonalcoholic or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (NASH/MASH).
Olix Pharmaceuticals Inc. has received approval from the Alfred Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) in Australia to conduct a phase I clinical trial of drug candidate OLX-75016 for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
X-Chem Inc. has synthesized 17-β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 13 (HSD17B13; 17-β-HSD 13) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Altimmune Inc.’s peptide-based glucagon-like peptide-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist pemvidutide hiccupped in a phase I study earlier this year but has bounced back with top-line results from its phase II study in obesity. Results showed robust reductions in body mass index and serum lipids, along with improvements in blood pressure with no imbalances in cardiac events, arrhythmias or clinically meaningful increases in heart rate. The data showed liver-fat loss similar to Novo Nordisk A/S’ GLP-1 drug Wegovy (semaglutide).
Orsobio Inc., already in the clinic with three candidates, has completed its $60 million series A financing. The company, CEO Mani Subramanian told BioWorld, has taken its time to find the right programs, put them together and only raised capital when it saw the programs had legs. Even the series A is a measured step, as Subramanian called the financing “modest.”
Hopes raised by the phase IIb Harmony study with FGF21 analogue efruxifermin (EFX) in pre-cirrhotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which appeared in a scientific journal last week, were less than fulfilled as Akero Therapeutics Inc. rolled out disappointing 36-week results from another, same-stage trial called Symmetry in NASH patients with cirrhosis. The company is forging ahead with U.S. FDA talks to figure out how a phase III effort might be designed.
The FDA has cleared IND applications for UBT-251 injection, a long-acting triple-targeted glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)/glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP)/glucagon receptor agonist developed by The United Bio-Technology (Hengqin) Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of The United Laboratories International Holdings Ltd., for adult type 2 diabetes and for overweight or obese subjects.
Three months after Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. received its second complete response letter for obeticholic acid to treat fibrosis due to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, causing a mass layoff and the decision to drop development for the indication, Bologna, Italy-based Alfasigma SpA agreed to acquire the company for $19 per share in cash, or about $793.8 million.
Inventiva SA is getting $10 million up front and the possibility of $231 in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones by exclusively licensing its nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) candidate, lanifibranor, to Hepalys Pharma Inc. to sell in Japan and South Korea, two massive markets for the indication.
