Treating sooner in the disease course – “hit them hard, hit them early,” as CEO Tahir Mahmood put it – may change outcomes for the better with AMT-101, the candidate from Applied Molecular Transport Inc. (AMT) tested in a combo trial against ulcerative colitis (UC), officials said during a conference call with investors.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has stress-tested Engitix Ltd.’s extracellular matrix (ECM) drug discovery platform and is coming back for more, expanding the existing collaboration from liver fibrosis to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Researchers at New York University have demonstrated that protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) on epithelial cells of the colon continued after they were trafficked from the cell membrane.
Mozart Therapeutics Inc. CEO Katie Fanning said the firm’s $55 million series A financing will allow the filing of an IND, probably in early 2024, for a prospect in celiac disease. Founded in July 2020, Seattle-based Mozart is based on research into the CD8 T-cell regulatory network, which has been found to play an important role in surveillance, recognition and elimination of inappropriately activated autoreactive and pathogenic immune cells.
Metacrine Inc.’s departure, in the wake of mixed phase IIa results, from the fiercely competitive nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) space with farnesoid X receptor (FXR) agonist MET-642, put a serious dent in shares and brought implications for other players. The San Diego-based firm’s stock (NASDAQ:MTCR) closed at $1.63, down $2.20, or 57%, as its plans to shift emphasis from NASH to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were made known.
In recent years enteric glial cells have moved on from being regarded as bit part players passively supporting intestinal epithelial cells, to being recognized as having a fundamental role in gastrointestinal physiology.
Calpro AS and Ampersand Health Ltd. are combining technologies to provide a self-management and remote monitoring solution for people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The partnership will integrate Oslo, Norway-based Calpro’s smart biomarker test with Ampersand’s digital therapeutic app My IBD Care. The companies said the collaboration could help reduce the administrative burden of IBD patient care.
A little over a month after Versant Ventures-back Vividion Therapeutics Inc. filed to raise $100 million in an IPO, Bayer AG is paying $1.5 billion up front, with the promise of $500 million more in milestone payments, to take over the firm and its small-molecule precision oncology and immunology platform.
DUBLIN – Danish startup Cytoki Pharma ApS raised $45 million in a series A round to take forward an engineered, long-acting version of interleukin-22 (lipidated IL-22), for development in inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBD).
HONG KONG – Shionogi & Co. Ltd. has inked a multitarget drug discovery collaboration for Inveniai LLC’s artificial intelligence and machine learning platform Alphameld. Inveniai is eligible to receive up to $200 million per program through a combination of up-front payments, development and commercial milestones, and royalties.
