Oricell Therapeutics Holdings Ltd closed a $110 million pre-IPO round to expand its global footprint and advance its lead candidate, a GPC3-targeted autologous CAR T therapy for liver cancer to registrational trials.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is entering the radiopharmaceutical space via a collaboration with Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. to jointly develop and commercialize next-generation radiopharmaceutical therapies.

Syneron Bio is emerging as one of the most heavily backed new entrants in the macrocyclic peptide space, raising more than $250 million in venture funding and securing a multibillion-dollar deal with Astrazeneca plc as it builds a platform spanning several of the most competitive frontiers in drug development.

More than four decades on from the approval of the first biologic drug, the industry has reached a tipping point, and biotech drugs now outnumber small molecules in the global R&D pipeline.

Amazon is extending the reach of its “everything store” into drug R&D with the launch of an artificial intelligence-powered Bio Discovery business. The company has compiled a catalogue of 40-plus foundation models that have been trained on extensive biology datasets and are able to generate and evaluate drug molecules in silico. For now, this covers antibodies only, but it is intended to move into other modalities.

KMT2A-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly aggressive leukemia subtype characterized by poor prognosis and high relapse rates. Because the menin-MLL interaction is essential for the stability and transcriptional activity of MLL fusion complexes, targeting this protein-protein interaction represents a promising therapeutic strategy for this aggressive form of AML. Researchers from Zhejiang University reported the discovery and preclinical characterization of [I], a novel menin inhibitor, designed for the treatment of AML.

Researchers from Fudan University (Shanghai, China) and collaborators tested the use of senescent tumor cell (STC)-derived nanovesicles to enable spatiotemporally confined immune responses for selective clearance of radiotherapy-induced STCs.

Kazia Therapeutics Ltd. has licensed a first-in-class SETDB1-targeted epigenetic drug development platform from QIMR Berghofer. The company acquired global rights to the SETDB1 platform, including the lead candidate MSETC, in exchange for an up-front payment and a tiered revenue-sharing structure aligned with development progress.