Princeton, N.J.-based Soligenix Inc.’s quick response testing SGX-301 (synthetic hypericin) – with results shown after just six weeks of treatment – puts the company in strong position against cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) as it readies for a “robust” discussion with the FDA.
DUBLIN – The middle of a pandemic may not be the optimal time to launch an oncology-focused company, but Klosterneuburg, Austria-based Oncoone Research & Development GmbH unveiled a €13 million (US$14.1 million) series A round Wednesday, March 18, and laid out plans to develop several different approaches to targeting an immunologically distinct form of a ubiquitous inflammatory cytokine, which is unique to cancer cells and which is associated with a poor prognosis.
Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH, of Tuebingen, Germany, and Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp. plan to merge as Immatics NV. Immatics will receive gross proceeds of up to $252 million at closing, which is expected in the second quarter of 2020.
Pharma has not gotten terribly serious yet about integrating digital health tools into clinical trials, let alone into their product offerings, despite the potential benefits they could offer when it comes to patient adherence, compliance and experience. Still, oncology giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has made a small step in that direction by partnering with Paris-based digital therapeutics company Voluntis SA.
Bridgebio Pharma Inc. subsidiary QED Therapeutics Inc., seeded in 2018 with $65 million and a license to Novartis AG's infigratinib, said the first patients have been dosed with the drug in two separate cancer trials.
Privately held Silverback Therapeutics Inc. continued its drive toward the clinic with an oversubscribed series B financing of $78.5 million to support its lead candidate, an anti-HER2 antibody conjugated to a TLR8 agonist for treating moderate or high HER2-expressing solid tumors.
HONG KONG – U.S., China and the Netherlands-based Harbour Biomed Therapeutics Ltd. has teamed up with Mount Sinai Health System, New York City's largest academic medical system, to develop novel biotherapies in oncology and immunology. The two parties will also be using Harbour’s H2L2 Harbour Mice platform to develop a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against the coronavirus that has turned into a global epidemic.
In a setback for Astrazeneca plc's plans to tackle previously untreated cases of advanced bladder cancer, neither its immune checkpoint inhibitor, Imfinzi (durvalumab), nor a pairing of it with the investigational drug tremelimumab beat standard-of-care (SOC) chemotherapy in improving overall survival (OS) during a phase III trial evaluating the treatments as first-line (1L) care for patients with advanced disease.
During its Feb. 27, 2020, conference call on the previous year’s fourth-quarter results – though not in a related press release – Nektar Therapeutics Inc. let news drop that the prospective breast cancer (BC) therapy Onzeald (etirinotecan pegol) for patients with brain metastases had failed in top-line phase III outcomes.
In the Marvel Comic Universe, Venom is a superhero who started life as a supervillain and Spiderman foe. In the biopharma universe, scorpion venom is undergoing the same fate transformation, as separate papers this week reported new ways to use scorpion venom in two major therapeutic targeting challenges.
RSS
