Laekna Inc. is handing ex-China rights to internally discovered PI3Kα pan-mutant selective inhibitor LAE-118 to U.S.-based Vasque Bio Inc. in a deal worth up to $527 million, marking another asset-monetization move by the Shanghai company as it looks to fund and accelerate development across its oncology and metabolic disease pipeline.
China’s National Medical Products Administration has approved Suzhou Alphamab Co. Ltd.’s HER2 bispecific antibody, anbenitamab (KN-026), through priority review for adults with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who have received at least one trastuzumab-containing regimen.
Dermasensor Inc. received CE mark approval for its handheld skin cancer detection device using spectroscopy and AI to test suspicious skin lesions for cancer in real time at the point of care. The device is designed to help qualified healthcare professionals decide whether suspicious skin lesions need further investigation. With skin cancer rates rising, the Dermasensor joins several other AI-based tools entering the European market to help with the analysis of suspicious lesions.
Tolerability is a key factor in the appeal of Enliven Therapeutics Inc.’s ELVN-001 for previously treated chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), which yielded positive updated phase I data from the Enable trial. Dennis Kim, hematologist from Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto, said he would use the drug for a patient “who doesn’t have any other options.”
Shanghai Qingrun Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd. has disclosed new S-adenosylmethionine synthase isoform type-2 (Mat2A) inhibitors that are potentially useful for the treatment of cancer.
Innovo Therapeutics Inc. has divulged sulfonamide derivatives acting as N-myristoyltransferase 1 (NMT1) inhibitors found to be potentially useful for the treatment of cancer, protozoal and viral infection.
Ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7) is a central regulator of multiple oncogenic pathways and is associated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis across several cancer types. Researchers from Molecure SA characterized the preclinical profile of OAT-4828, a selective USP7 inhibitor with antiproliferative activity.
T-Curx GmbH has obtained clinical trial approval from the Swiss agency Swissmedic for the company’s nonviral lead CAR T program, TCX-001. The first-in-human phase I study will open in Switzerland, and a submission to the EMA will seek to expand the trial to sites in Germany. The study will enroll adults with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), including patients not eligible for stem cell transplantation.
Two companies with European ties signed billion-dollar deals with large pharma firms in the last two days to discover and develop molecular glue drugs, as well as to advance a preclinical Alzheimer’s disease prospect. For both companies, the up-front payments are relatively small, only $10 million for Alzecure Pharma AB, and just $40 million for Orionis Biosciences Inc. But it’s the back-end milestone amounts that are headline-grabbing.
Less than two months after Kailera Therapeutics Inc. made headlines with biopharma’s largest IPO to date, Parabilis Medicines Inc. has come along and surpassed it. The oncology-focused firm priced its upsized IPO of 3.5 million shares at $20 apiece for gross proceeds of $670 million, an amount that could rise to $770 million should underwriters exercise their full 5-million-share overallotment option.