Relation Therapeutics Ltd. has delivered the first commercial validation of its combined wet lab/in silico platform for homing in on disease-related genes in the thick of the genome, signing two collaboration agreements with GSK plc, with a potential value of $200 million per target.

Keybioscience AG and Eli Lilly & Co. have agreed to extend their collaboration on the development of dual amylin and calcitonin receptor agonists (DACRAs), a new class of potential treatments for obesity and related disorders.

Novartis AG described the identification and activity of TAK-756, a novel, selective and potent TAK1 inhibitor, as a potential intra-articular therapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Previous studies demonstrated that TAK1 appears to be a potential target for controlling inflammation and catabolism through NF-κB and MAPK pathways.

Levicept Ltd. is scoping the options for phase III development after reporting positive results from its phase II trial of LEVI-04 in the treatment of pain caused by osteoarthritis of the knee. The full data are yet to be published, but the company said the potentially first-in-class neurotrophin-3 inhibitor demonstrated significant differences from placebo, with a mean reduction in pain score from baseline of more than 50%, for the three doses tested.

Researchers from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University and Shaoxing People's Hospital presented preclinical data for the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) inhibitor STX-0119, which has been previously validated in models of cancer.

Adolore Biotherapeutics Inc. has offered an update on recent pipeline development progress as it advances nonopioid analgesic gene therapies for the treatment of chronic pain.

Researchers from China Pharmaceutical University published the design and preclinical characterization of novel potent and selective CDC2-like kinase 2 (CLK2) inhibitors as potential candidates for the treatment of osteoarthritis.