On track to move its lead candidate, MC-339, into the clinic for small-cell lung cancer in 2024, Mariana Oncology Inc. raised $175 million through an oversubscribed series B round co-led by Deep Track Capital and Forbion. The radiopharmaceutical company was incubated for 18 months before raising $75 million through a series A in December 2021, and has since built out its R&D division and a phase I/II manufacturing unit. It currently has 50 employees.
In a mammoth deal with a potentially huge payoff, Nurix Therapeutics Inc. and Seagen Inc. will collaborate to develop what they call a new class of medicines, Degrader-Antibody Conjugates, to create drugs with new mechanisms of action for treating cancer.
China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has given the green light to Gloria Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, zimberelimab (Yutuo, GLS-010), for treating second-line cervical cancer, making it the first immune checkpoint inhibitor approved in China for treating the disease.
Ibex Medical Analytics Ltd. closed a $55 million series C financing round that will allow the company to expand its footprint in the U.S. to meet the increasing demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered diagnostic solutions. Ibex has developed the Galen platform which offers AI solutions that allow pathologists to accurately and rapidly detect and diagnose cancer. The company also reported the launch of Galen Breast HER2, a new software which will play a critical role in helping oncologists identify effective therapies for breast cancer patients.
Sichuan Haisco Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has described N6-adenosine-methyltransferase catalytic subunit (METTL3) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Current standard of care treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors harboring mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene includes a wide variety of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). There are, however, some types of NSCLC tumors, such as the ones with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations, that have a much-limited margin of therapeutic intervention. Researchers from Suzhou Puhe Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd. have reported the identification and early evaluation of a small-molecule third-generation TKI of EGFR, YK-029A, being developed as an anticancer agent.
Etern Biopharma (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. has described bicyclic heteroaryl compounds acting as transcriptional coactivator YAP1 and/or TAZ/transcriptional enhancer factor (TEAD) interaction inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, fibrosis and cardiovascular disorders.