G2Gbio Inc. debuted on the Korea Exchange with a ₩52.2 billion (US$37.7 million) IPO Aug. 14. Nearly half of the funds raised will be used to expand Cheongju-si, South Korea-based G2Gbio’s manufacturing plants and help mass produce sustained-release injectable drug products such as GB-5001, its lead candidate in development as a once-monthly formulation of donepezil (Aricept; Eisai Co. Ltd.) for Alzheimer’s disease.
Avixgen Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Dx&Vx Co. Ltd., inked a $360 million license agreement with an unidentified U.S.-based biotechnology company, granting the latter rights to its advanced cell penetrating (ACP) peptide drug delivery platform.
Esophageal carcinoma (EC) is a tumor type of the digestive tract that accounts for about 300,000 deaths worldwide annually, with high aggressiveness and poor prognosis. Chinese researchers have investigated the implication of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 18 family member A1 (ALDH18A1) in EC.
Sorafenib is a widely used treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma that has advanced beyond surgical resection, but only 30% of patients respond and many develop resistance within half a year. The resistance has been linked to showing greater ‘stemness’ characteristics of tumor cells, such as activation of signaling pathways mediated by Wnt/b-catenin, Hedgehog and PI3K-Akt.
Researchers at Wenzhou Medical University reported the synthesis and preclinical evaluation of a novel series of betulin-succinate derivatives developed as potential anticancer agents. Betulin is a naturally occurring triterpene that shows significant potential as a lead compound for the development of novel antitumor agents, owing to its selective cytotoxicity against cancer cells and low toxicity toward normal cells.
Mutations in the GTPase KRAS drive proliferation of many types of tumors, and daraxonrasib (RMC-6236), which inhibits various KRAS mutants, can slow growth of pancreatic and lung cancers. Researchers at City University of New York and Weill Cornell Medical College have demonstrated that it also showed effects in osteosarcoma models expressing mutated KRAS.
Researchers from China Pharmaceutical University and collaborators have identified various naphthalene and indane derivatives as selective USP7 inhibitors.
Better Medicine OÜ raised €1 million (US$1.16 million) in a pre-seed funding round for its AI platform, Bmvision Kidney, which uses deep-learning models to detect malignant kidney lesions. The funds will be used to accelerate the rollout of the software across Europe and prepare for U.S. FDA clearance.
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