HONG KONG – South Korea's Helixmith Co. Ltd. has announced the results of a phase III trial extension testing VM-202 (donaperminogene seltoplasmid), a regenerative plasmid DNA gene therapy candidate, in diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).

A tepid reception to new top-line phase III data on the long-acting growth hormone (GH) somatrogon nudged Opko Health Inc. shares (NASDAQ:OPK) about 4 cents higher to $2.13 Monday, leaving it overshadowed by competitor Ascendis Pharma A/S, the developer of Transcon-hGH. Ascendis' shares (NASDAQ:ASND) rose 4.5% to $103.36.

Benefit for patients with disease that has spread to the brain put a special shine on top-line data rolled out by Seattle Genetics Inc. (Seagen) from the HER2Climb study, an experiment to test the oral small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) tucatinib, designed as highly selective for HER2 without significantly knocking down EGFR.

PARIS – Clinatec Research Center, of Grenoble, France, is heralding the publication of results from its Brain Computer Interface (BCI) Exoskeleton clinical trial in the journal Lancet Neurology. Its semi-invasive medical device, Wimagine, has enabled a quadriplegic patient to move by transmitting signals emitted by his brain to an exoskeleton. This is the first proof of concept for control of a four-limb exoskeleton by a neuroprosthesis.

The pipeline shift made public Thursday by Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc. may have been presaged by analysts, who in August sounded lukewarm about the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm's prospects as they stood then.

Israel's Protalix Biotherapeutics Inc., the first company to gain FDA approval for a protein therapy produced by plant cell cultures in 2012, has moved one step closer to seeking FDA approval for a second such product with new phase III data supporting its experimental therapy for Fabry disease.

Eli Lilly and Co.'s $1.48 billion acquisition of Armo Biosciences Inc., intended to broadly bolster its immuno-oncology program, fell short of that goal in its first big test, a phase III trial in second-line pancreatic cancer called Sequoia.

BEIJING – Cell therapies specialist Nanjing Iaso Biotherapeutics Co. Ltd. became the latest Chinese biotech to enter the country's fierce CAR T race, after China regulators granted an IND approval to CT-103A, a fully-human BCMA CAR T for treating relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.