Biocells (Beijing) Biotech Co. Ltd. has patented isoquinolinone derivatives acting aquaporin-4 (AQP4) inhibitors and thus reported to be useful for the treatment of hypervolemia (fluid overload) and cerebral ischemia.
Fauna Bio Inc. has signed a multi-year agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. to apply Fauna’s Convergence artificial intelligence (AI) platform to support preclinical drug discovery efforts in obesity.
In their year-end list of top scientific achievements and the people who made them, both Science and Nature have included the fight against “the obesity epidemic.” Science named GLP-1 drugs as its Breakthrough of the Year, while Nature included Svetlana Mojsov in its 2023 list of the year’s most important investigators. Mojsov is research associate professor at The Rockefeller University and was an early contributor to understanding the metabolic role of GLP.
Olix Pharmaceuticals Inc. has received approval from the Alfred Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) in Australia to conduct a phase I clinical trial of drug candidate OLX-75016 for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Researchers at Cerevance Inc. and Cerevance Ltd. have identified heterobicyclic amides acting as ADP-ribosyl cyclase/cyclic ADP-ribose hydrolase 1 (CD38) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of aging, diabetic nephropathy, glaucoma, inflammatory disorders, metabolic syndrome, obesity and rheumatoid arthritis, among others.
Encellin Inc. has announced the closing of a US$9.9 million financing round that will support the company’s development of its cell encapsulation platform with an initial focus on type 1 diabetes.
Iecure Inc. has received clearance from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of the company’s clinical trial notification (CTN) for ECUR-506 (formerly GTP-506), an investigational therapy in development for the treatment of ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency in pediatric (or neonatal) patients.
Korro Bio Inc. has nominated its first development candidate, KRRO-110, for the potential treatment of α1-antitrypsin deficiency. KRRO-110 is a proprietary RNA editing oligonucleotide delivered to liver cells using clinically validated LNP technology licensed from Genevant.