In an all-cash transaction valued at €780 million (US$920 million), Asahi Kasei Corp. offered to buy Aicuris Anti-infective Cures AG, expanding its infectious disease portfolio with a marketed cytomegalovirus product and a herpes treatment nearing an NDA.
In an all-cash transaction valued at €780 million (US$920 million), Asahi Kasei Corp. offered to buy Aicuris Anti-infective Cures AG, expanding its infectious disease portfolio with a marketed cytomegalovirus product and a herpes treatment nearing an NDA.
Orthogon Therapeutics LLC has closed an oversubscribed financing round, with funding to be used to accelerate the development of its first-in-class treatments for managing BK virus reactivation in transplant patients.
Patients receiving a kidney transplant and who are positive for BK virus (BKV) are at risk of losing their transplant due to BKV reactivation. At this time, there are no antiviral options available for the prevention of BKV-associated nephropathy. Researchers from Aicuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH presented preclinical data on AIC-468, an antisense RNA therapy that inhibits the splicing process of a viral mRNA encoding a protein critical for BKV replication.
BK polyomavirus (BKV) reactivation in immunocompromised renal transplant patients may result in BKV-associated nephropathy and hemorrhagic cystitis. There are no suitable animal models of BKV to date, and although there are several treatment options under development, none have reached regulatory approval so far.
Memo Therapeutics AG has added a further CHF20 million (US$22 million) to its series C, bringing the total for the round to CHF45 million and enabling the company to expand the phase II trial of its lead program, AntiBKV, in neutralizing BK virus infection in immune compromised kidney transplant recipients.
Spikimm SAS has signed an exclusive collaboration and license option agreement with SATT Conectus Alsace SAS for monoclonal antibodies targeting the BK virus. Reactivation of the BK virus (BKV) in patients receiving kidney transplant, bone marrow or stem cell grafts has potential serious consequences.
What Piper Sandler analyst Christopher Raymond called the “shocking” decision by Allovir Inc. to scrap development of posoleucel – which had advanced to three phase III trials – for all indications sent shares of the firm (NASDAQ:ALVR) in a tailspin, closing Dec. 22 at 76 cents, down $1.56, or 67%.
Aicuris Anti-infective Cures AG has announced its intention to focus on the development and commercialization of anti-infectives for immunocompromised individuals, and will discontinue research activities outside of this strategic scope.
