Synthekine Inc., a California startup developing new medicines for cancer and autoimmune disorders, has closed an $82 million series A financing. The funds will help the company move its two lead programs into the clinic, expand its discovery pipeline and hone its cytokine engineering platforms.
Palleon Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO and founder Jim Broderick told BioWorld that the just-raised $100 million in series B money leaves the firm well positioned to push its lead oncology compound into the clinic next year, bolstered by a widely gathered team of experts – “almost a consortium” – in glycan mediation.
New and updated preclinical and clinical data to be presented by biopharma firms at the
European Society for Medical Oncology Virtual Congress 2020, including: ADC, Amunix, Bayer, Blueprint, BMS, Cardiff Oncology, Clovis, Corvus, Cullinan Pearl, Deciphera, Genentech, Genocea, Halozyme, Immunicum, Immunogen, Mersana, Noxxon, Oryzon, Roche, VBI.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are making a comeback. After a relatively slow start with Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin, Seattle Genetics Inc.) and Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine, Roche Holding AG) approved by the FDA in 2011 and 2013, respectively, the regulatory activity has swelled with four FDA approvals over the last nine months.
The FDA has granted Plus Therapeutics Inc. fast track designation for its lead candidate, Rhenium Nanoliposomes (RNL), for treating recurrent glioblastoma, propelling it into the sixth cohort of a phase I dose-finding trial.
In the company’s largest acquisition and potentially the fifth biggest biotech M&A ever, Gilead Sciences Inc. will acquire Immunomedics Inc. for $21 billion in a move that substantially transforms Gilead’s oncology portfolio.
Though falling short of the outright takeover that some may have hoped for, Merck & Co. Inc.’s dual tie-ups with Seattle Genetics Inc. (Seagen) put the latter in solid position to shop for acquisitions of its own.
LONDON – Neogene Therapeutics BV has raised $110 million in a series A round to advance development of a novel T-cell immunotherapy for treating solid tumors.
Trillium Therapeutics Inc. is playing a hot hand. The immuno-oncology company followed recently revealed positive data from two dose-escalation phase I studies targeting CD47 by pulling down a $25 million equity investment from Pfizer Inc. Now the company has priced a $130 million underwritten public offering of 10 million common shares at $13 each.
Favorable conditions in China encouraged biotech veterans Jerry Wang, Bing Yan and Lihua Zheng to co-found Anheart Therapeutics Co. Ltd. in November 2018 to focus on oncology. On Monday, the Chinese startup in-licensed a mIDH-1 inhibitor and an AXL inhibitor from Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. to expand its pipeline, less than two years after it obtained the global rights of its first asset, AB-106 (taletrectinib), from the Japanese firm to establish its footing.