Patients suffering in the long-stagnant therapeutic landscape of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease gained encouragement with positive mid-stage results from Prometheus Biosciences Inc., which tested its tumor necrosis factor-like cytokine 1A-targeting PRA-023 against both forms of inflammatory bowel disease. San Diego-based Prometheus closed at $95.80, up $59.74, or 165.7% after the company made known data from the phase II study called Artemis-UC and the Apollo-CD phase IIa experiment. Prometheus intends to advance PRA-023 into phase III testing next year.
Saniona AB has completed preclinical development with SAN-903 and is ready to start the regulatory process for entering phase I trials either alone or together with a partner. SAN-903 is a novel, potential first-in-class medicine based on inhibition of the calcium-activated potassium ion channel KCa3.1.
Aqualung Therapeutics Corp. has been awarded two 3-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fast Track awards to support development of ALT-100 (enamptcumab), a humanized monoclonal antibody therapy for the chronic indications of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Jiangxi Jemincare Group Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Jemincare Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. have divulged tricyclic hypoxia inducible factor 2-alpha (HIF-2-alpha; EPAS1) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, von Hippel-Lindau disease, pulmonary hypertension and inflammatory bowel disease.
Qilu Regor Therapeutics Inc. has identified (hetero)arylamino-cyclohexyl-sulfonyl derivatives acting as C-C chemokine receptor type 6 (CCR6) antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Purnovate Inc., a subsidiary of Adial Pharmaceuticals Inc., has obtained promising in vivo data from a study in mice treated with PNV-6005 as a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
In the largest study to date for Crohn's disease, researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard identified rare variants of 10 genes associated with this pathology. The researchers sequenced the exomes of 110,000 people, 30,000 patients with Crohn's and 80,000 without this condition, with the participation of a hundred international scientific institutions.
Prometheus Biosciences Inc.’s stock-boosting news July 26 put more investor eyes on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where the company during its R&D Day revealed the target of PRA-052, the clinical candidate that emerged from the program known as PR-600. PRA-052 takes aim at the CD30 ligand, which acts as a co-stimulatory molecule to drive T-cell proliferation and differentiation.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has agreed to pay up to $1.9 billion plus royalties, plus an up-front payment of undisclosed value, for Gentibio Inc.’s expertise in engineered regulatory T cells (Tregs) to treat inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The agreement follows soon after BMS’ $4.1 billion acquisition of cancer biotech Turning Point Therapeutics Inc., as well as an expansion of its oncology partnership with Bridgebio Pharma Inc. to the tune of $905 million.
