Ventus Therapeutics Inc. has entered into a multi-year collaboration with Genentech Inc., a member of the Roche Group, to discover and optimize novel small-molecule candidates for challenging targets in major disease areas using Ventus’ Resolve drug discovery platform.
Ventus Therapeutics US Inc. has divulged pyrido-[3,4-d]pyridazine amine derivatives acting as NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune disease, liver, renal, respiratory, cardiovascular and inflammatory disorders, among others.
Ventus Therapeutics Inc. has nominated a potential first-in-class cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) inhibitor, VENT-03, as the company’s first development candidate directed against cGAS.
After two years of talks, privately held Ventus Therapeutics Inc. and Novo Nordisk A/S have signed an exclusive worldwide license deal to commercialize candidates from Ventus’ portfolio of peripherally restricted NLR pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inhibitors. Along with Roche Holding AG’s September 2020 acquisition of Inflazome Ltd. and Novartis AG’s buyout of subsidiary IFM Tre in April 2019, this is another step by big players to get into the NLRP3 space.
Ventus Therapeutics Inc. closed a $140 million series C financing to continue scaling its platform to address previously undruggable targets. The company said it plans to advance programs targeting key modulators of the innate immune system and other therapies, including two targeting NLRP3 (NLR pyrin domain-containing 3) and one targeting cGAS, into the clinic. It plans to submit INDs for three programs in 2023.
Ventus Therapeutics Inc. closed a $100 million series B round less than 12 months after raising $60 million in series A funding, to continue development of several preclinical programs informed by novel insights into the structural biology of key targets associated with innate immune signal pathways implicated in a wide range of disease areas.
The importance of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway in orchestrating the body’s innate response to pathogenic, tumor or self-DNA in the cytoplasm has made it a hot target in immunology research and drug discovery, and several biopharma companies have started programs dedicated to that area, spanning infectious and inflammatory diseases as well as cancer. The second part of this feature examines the products undergoing preclinical development as well as the ones that are now in clinical testing.
