The BioWorld Infectious Disease Index (BIDI) has continued to decline in the first four months of 2024, finishing April with a year-to-date decrease of 25.12%. BIDI trailed both the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index, which saw a 4.76% downturn by April’s end, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed the month with a 0.34% increase for the year. In 2023, BIDI ended the year with a 43.48% decline, preceded by an 83.57% drop in 2022.
Three years ago when Keting Chu pondered the name for a new biopharma company that would fold in infectious disease assets from Novartis AG, she looked out over her West Coast backyard. “I was looking for a name that made you think of California,” she told BioWorld. She nixed the idea of incorporating redwood trees into the name, but then she saw the blue jays flying around those trees and thought, “that’s a beautiful bird.” Hence, Chu founded and became CEO of Bluejay Therapeutics Inc., first raising $20 million through a series A in June 2021 and a $41 million series B in August 2022. On May 9, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company closed a $182 million series C round, with plans to accelerate development of lead compound BJT-778 to treat chronic hepatitis D virus, a condition for which there are no approved therapeutics in the U.S.
About a year ago, when Seres Therapeutics Inc. won U.S. FDA approval of oral microbiome therapy Vowst (live fecal microbiota spores), the drug – meant to prevent recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection – was hailed as first in the space, and launch plans sounded ambitious. In July 2021, Seres inked a deal with Nestlé Health Science SA, of Lutry, Switzerland, to jointly commercialize Vowst in the U.S. and potentially Canada. But shares of Cambridge, Mass.-based Seres (NASDAQ:MCRB) closed May 8 at 75 cents, down 36 cents, or 32%, after the firm provided an update on sales, roughly flat quarter over quarter.
Memo Therapeutics AG has added a further CHF20 million (US$22 million) to its series C, bringing the total for the round to CHF45 million and enabling the company to expand the phase II trial of its lead program, AntiBKV, in neutralizing BK virus infection in immune compromised kidney transplant recipients.
Despite what University of Pennsylvania (Penn) immunotherapy pioneer Carl June referred to as a “cold slap last November” – a launched investigation by the U.S. FDA into a possible link between CAR T-cell immunotherapies and secondary cancers – new unpublished studies by Penn and Stanford University highlight the rarity of such cases.
Less than a week ago, executives at Lyra Therapeutics Inc. were looking ahead to “imminent” data from its first phase III study in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), testing drug-device candidate LYR-210, a drug-device candidate largely expected to fill a much-needed gap in CRS treatment. On Monday, May 6, they were announcing plans to preserve cash in the wake of the failed Enlighten 1 study, which raised doubts as to the feasibility of the company’s CRS programs, which also include the similarly designed candidate LYR-220.
The latest World Health Organization’s (WHO) Pandemic Agreement falls short of protecting all countries in future pandemics, said international patient groups and public health organizations.
Looking beyond the U.S. biopharma industry, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is now pushing the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations to get on board with the World Health Organization’s proposed Pandemic Accord aimed at making diagnostics, treatments and vaccines available to everyone who needs them.
Antibody-drug conjugates are the hot spot for deals in Asia, but investors questioned whether oncology is really the place to be, during the Asia Bio Partnering Forum in Singapore April 24 to 25.
X4 Pharmaceuticals Inc. is raring to go with marketing after the firm scored U.S. FDA approval of Xolremdi (mavorixafor) capsules for patients 12 years and older with warts, hypogammaglobulinemia, infections and myelokathexis, or WHIM syndrome, to increase the number of circulating mature neutrophils and lymphocytes.
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