“There isn’t a better place to be” now than in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) drug development, said Phyllis Ferrell, global head of external engagement in AD and neurodegeneration at Eli Lilly and Co., during Biotech Showcase’s panel talk titled, “Aduhelm: Stimulating the Next Generation of AD Treatment.”
Having unveiled more data from the ongoing, global phase III Gener8-1 study with Roctavian (valoctocogene roxaparvovec, also known as valrox), Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. remains on track to file a regulatory submission with the FDA in the second quarter of this year for the gene therapy to treat adults with severe hemophilia A. The EMA is already reviewing a marketing authorization application.
Harmony Biosciences Holdings Inc.’s plan disclosed at the start of last December to launch a phase III study with Wakix (pitolisant) for idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) during the first half of this year brought renewed attention to the sleep space, where a handful of players are jostling for position.
Annexon Inc. deemed promising – as did analysts – the interim phase II data with C1q protein complex inhibitor ANX-005 in Huntington’s disease (HD), but the safety profile took Wall Street aback, and shares (NASDAQ:ANNX) sank $3.75, or 34%, to close at $7.26.
Avrobio Inc., stung by variable outcomes in a phase II test of its investigational Fabry disease therapy, is quitting further enrollment in the program, one of the first from its gene therapy platform, Plato. The team's attention will shift instead to other clinical-stage lysosomal disorder programs amid "an increasingly challenging market and regulatory environment for Fabry disease," the company said.
Preliminary data from a phase IIIb study of Johnson & Johnson’s Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine showed a homologous booster dose was 85% effective against hospitalization in participants from South Africa.
Ikena Oncology Inc.’s plan to launch the first-in-human phase I study with IK-930, a transcriptional enhanced associate domain inhibitor targeting the Hippo pathway in cancer, brought new attention to the Hippo space. The FDA accepted Ikena’s IND application early last month. Now, work with other candidates is picking up steam at a handful of companies pursuing early stage prospects.
Schizophrenia remains one of the toughest mental health issues to treat, as well as an indication that has created substantial challenges for drug makers. The pipeline of potential new schizophrenia medicines is busy, with Cortellis showing that 10 new phase III schizophrenia trials that began recruiting patients in 2021 and 59 phase III trials ongoing at the end of the year.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Bio-Thera, Cantargia, Hansa, Kolon, Lidds, Salarius, Saniona.
With the memory of Dec. 20’s stock-denting, top-line phase III fizzle by Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. in dry eye disease (DED) still fresh, Palatin Technologies Inc. is launching a late-stage effort in the same indication. Aldeyra offered data from the Tranquility trial with reproxalap – a small-molecule, immune-modulating covalent inhibitor of reactive aldehyde species, known as RASP, formulated as an ophthalmic solution – that showed a miss on the primary endpoint of ocular redness.
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