As the company unveiled 18-month results from the phase III study called Helios-A, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s president of R&D, Akshay Vaishnaw, said “new exploratory data with the cardiac endpoints are extremely encouraging.” The study is testing RNAi therapy vutrisiran in polyneuropathy associated with hereditary transthyretin-mediated (hATTR) amyloidosis, where Helios-A met all secondary endpoints measured at 18 months.
When James Peyer, Cambrian Biopharma Inc.’s CEO, watched his grandfather fail every cancer treatment and eventually pass away, he came to a realization that now forms the backbone of his company. “The more I learned about cancer, the more convinced I became that we were approaching cancer as a disease in the wrong way,” Peyer told BioWorld. “We were waiting until people were sick and only then doing something about it.” Cambrian just closed on an oversubscribed series C that brought in $100 million to develop a pipeline of therapies designed to treat and prevent age-related diseases.
Sio Gene Therapies Inc. CEO Pavan Cheruvu said the company sees no “significant rate limiters to moving forward” with FDA fast-tracked AXO-AAV-GM1 for the treatment of GM1 gangliosidosis. Shares of the New York-based firm (NASDAQ:SIOX) closed at $2.36, up 21 cents, as Wall Street welcomed positive interim data from the ongoing phase I/II study with the adeno-associated viral vector 9-based gene therapy for GM1 gangliosidosis.
Stealth Biotherapeutics Corp.’s refusal to file (RTF) letter from the FDA regarding the NDA for elamipretide, a candidate that targets mitochondria in the treatment of Barth syndrome, hardly knocked the stock, as investors likely saw the bad news coming.
Mitochondrial disease, where the tiny energy factories in cells aren’t functioning properly, can have devastating and sometimes fatal consequences. As there are no approved treatments, patients rely on strategies such as strict diets and conserving energy to try and control symptoms that can affect organs including the brain, kidneys, muscles, pancreas and heart. Netherlands-based biotech Khondrion BV is one of a group of companies that is making progress against this group of rare inherited conditions that affects around one in every 4,000 people.
In its first big pharma deal since it was founded around a cell programming technology in 2009, Immusoft Corp. signed Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to a research collaboration and license option targeting rare inherited metabolic disorders. The agreement brings an undisclosed up-front fee and research funding to Immusoft, which is also eligible to earn more than $900 million if all options are exercised and all milestones hit.
DUBLIN – Shares in Idorsia Ltd. were off almost 4% Oct. 11 on news that lucerastat missed the primary endpoint of the Modify phase III trial in Fabry disease. The double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, which recruited 118 adult patients, was designed to evaluate the effect of lucerastat on neuropathic pain. Patients were randomized to drug or placebo in a 2-to-1 ratio.
Attralus Inc.’s $116 million series B will advance pan-amyloid removal (PAR) therapeutics, putting lead prospect AT-03 into a phase I biodistribution study soon in systemic amyloidosis patients while advancing other programs, including AT-01, an amyloid-specific imaging radiotracer for diagnosis in the same indication.
The FDA has put a hold on a clinical study of a rare disease gene therapy BMN-307 from Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. after several mice developed liver tumors following a high dose in a preclinical trial.
Ascendis Pharma A/S kept mum on the cost of just-approved Skytrofa (lonapegsomatropin) for pediatric growth hormone deficiency (GHD) – saying only that “premium responsible pricing” would be put in place – but Wall Street speculated freely about revenues likely due from the first-ever weekly injection treatment.
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