China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved the country’s first injectable teprotumumab biosimilar from Innovent Biologics Inc. under the brand name of Sycume (teprotumumab N-01) to treat thyroid eye disease on March 14. The NMPA on March 15 accepted Simcere Pharmaceutical Group Ltd.’s NDA of deunoxavir marboxil (ADC-189) tablets, a product originally developed by Jiaxing Andicon Biotech Co. Ltd. to treat influenza A and B.
Leading pharma companies have pitched into Sofinnova Partners’ new accelerator fund, which has exceeded the target and closed at €165 million (US$180 million). In what is said to be the largest pan-European biotech accelerator fund, Amgen Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb Co. and Pfizer Ventures will get an inside track on startups formed around academic research, as the nascent companies are shaped up for formal investment rounds.
Maxion Therapeutics Ltd. is poised to extend the therapeutic reach of antibodies into the vast field of G-protein coupled receptors and ion channel targets, after raising $72 million in a series A round.
Finnish cancer immunotherapy specialist Valo Therapeutics Oy has raised €19 million (US$20.7 million) in a round that attracted Italian and Australian investors, and funding the company to the completion of the ongoing phase Ib trial of its lead program in the treatment of solid tumors.
Yesterday’s first part of this two-part series surveyed bispecific antibodies for immunological and inflammatory (I&I) disease. Apart from bispecifics, Leerink analyst Thomas Smith lately has proven interested in I&I overall, unveiling his “five for 2025” in a January report that listed five indications with “potential for disruption” in the year ahead.
Analysts were pleasantly surprised by the positive phase III data reported for Kyowa Kirin Co. Ltd./Amgen Inc.’s rocatinlimab, a T-cell rebalancing therapy, in moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.
The recent series A financing by Bambusa Therapeutics Inc. to fund bispecific antibodies for immunological and inflammatory disorders proved investor faith in the new approach with a proven mechanism.
Insilico Medicine founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov told BioWorld that he tries to spend as much time as possible in China, because that's where the artificial intelligence (AI) drug development company conducts synthesis and tests for early stage discovery. “And nowadays, not a day goes by without somebody launching an AI drug discovery company,” he said, noting that Chinese AI company Deepseek could be a huge disrupter.
Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-focused Callio Therapeutics debuted on March 3 with the closing of a $187 million series A financing round based on cancer drug technology and assets in-licensed from Hummingbird Bioscience Pte Ltd.
Regenerative medicine company Mesoblast Ltd. is preparing to launch its allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) therapy, Ryoncil, (remestemcel-L), in March in the U.S. and has priced the treatment at roughly $1.55 million for a full course.
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