LONDON – Evox Therapeutics Ltd. sealed a $1.2 billion collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co. to apply its exosome technology to the doubly difficult task of systemically delivering RNA interference and antisense oligonucleotide drugs, to reach central nervous system targets.
Lessons learned from development of hepatitis C therapies could be applied to the underserved hepatitis B population, potentially leading to a functional cure through a combination of optimized drugs that attack the virus from different angles. That is the mission of 2-year-old Aligos Therapeutics Inc., a South San Francisco-based startup focused on liver-related diseases.
DUBLIN – The witty Twitter account @justsaysinmice, run by Northeastern University research scientist Jim Heathers, offers a very useful corrective to the misleading and unwarranted hype that often accompanies preclinical studies in mice. What looks good in murine models is all too often lost in translation, for a whole host of reasons, and never has any useful effect in patients. That’s not a concern for a group led by Thomas Thum, of the Institute of Molecular and Translational Therapeutic Strategies at Hannover Medical School in Germany, who just published in Nature Communications the outcome of what is probably the largest ever pig study in heart failure.
Philadelphia-based Aro Biotherapeutics Co. CEO Sue Dillon told BioWorld her firm has “incoming interest from other companies to apply Centyrins to other kinds of drug conjugates,” which could mean more deals with the platform like the one sealed with Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc.
It’s a big day for privately held Empirico Inc. as it embarks on a massive combo pharma deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. while racking up a $17 million series A-2 financing.
