ISA Pharmaceuticals BV has closed a €26 million (US$30.76 million) funding round to advance its cancer immunotherapy product, ISA-101b, in the clinic, as the company aims to tackle the low response rates that hold back this therapeutic approach.

Arbutus Biopharma Corp. this month gained the go-ahead from regulators to start a phase Ia/Ib trial with its oral capsid inhibitor, AB-836, for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, an event that drew more attention to the busy space and brought renewed speculation about RNAi bids against HBV, including Arbutus’ own.

PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) released three final guidances on its expectations on clinical performance requirements and risk mitigation for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) self-tests. The guidances outline clinical performance requirements and key risks that must be mitigated for IVDs to be used as self-tests for seasonal influenza; hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV); and chlamydia, gonorrhea; and syphilis.

Excision Biotherapeutics Inc.’s CEO is specific when he talks about his company’s therapies and what they may achieve: a functional cure. “When you treat someone and they become cancer free, you can’t use the world ‘cured’ because the cancer may come back decades later,” Daniel Dornbusch told BioWorld. “But you can talk about a  functional cure, meaning the cancer didn’t come back for a very long time. It’s functionally cured for maybe 10, 20 or 30 years."

Assembly Biosciences Inc., a company testing the limits of sustained virologic response in people with chronic hepatitis B virus infection after they discontinue treatment, said nearly all participants in an ongoing phase II study returned to having detectable viral loads after going off a regimen featuring the company's core inhibitor, vebicorvir.

Genetron Holdings Ltd., a Beijing-based precision oncology company, has gained breakthrough device designation status from the U.S. FDA for its blood-based, next-generation sequencing test for the early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The test, called HCCscreen, is intended for individuals at high risk for HCC due to chronic hepatitis B virus infection or liver cirrhosis.

Researchers at the University of Virginia have used a retrospective database analysis to show that the use of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors for the treatment of HIV or hepatitis B reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 33%.

DUBLIN – Finch Therapeutics Inc. closed a $90 million series D round to take its oral microbiome therapy, CP-101, into late-stage clinical development and registration in chronic Clostridioides difficile infection and to move two additional programs, for chronic hepatitis B virus infection and autistic spectrum disorder, into the clinic.