LONDON – Novo Repair has made new investments of $12 million, bringing the total invested by the specialist anti-infectives venture capital fund since it was set up two years ago to plug the gap in the early stage pipeline to $48 million.
While Novan Inc.’s phase III failure in treating molluscum contagiosum for patients ages 6 months and older battered its stock Friday, the company intends to take the positive data it gleaned to the FDA to discuss an NDA submission and a possible phase III trial for next year.
The stock at Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SBPH), after an especially rough Thursday, began healing a bit as investors took in the company’s decision to stop dosing and enrolling patients in its phase IIb Catalyst trials.
While Ebola virus disease in the U.S. is a rare occurrence, the FDA approval of Merck & Co. Inc.’s Ervebo, the agency’s first for preventing Ebola Zaire virus in people age 18 and older, will have a ripple effect across the world, especially Africa where its effects have been devastating for decades. Stockpiling such a vaccine is crucial to world safety as Ebola has long been a potential bioterrorism threat, especially after 9/11. In the world of theoretical biological warfare, where the virus could be weaponized and disseminated by aerosol, Ebola virus is considered the most dangerous, with fatality rates estimated between 25% to 90%.
Cryptosporidium is a parasite that affects both the very poor and the very rich. It can cause severe diarrheal infections in malnourished children and in people whose immune systems are compromised, for example, by HIV.
Shares of Iterum Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ITRM) slid 36%, or $1.73, to close at $3.12 after the Dublin-based firm disclosed the much-anticipated but less-than-stellar results from the phase III trial called Sulopenem for Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or SURE 3, testing oral and I.V. versions of the drug in complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI).
HONG KONG - South Korean biopharmaceutical company Quratis Inc. and Indonesia’s state-run company, Bio Farma PT, have entered a term sheet agreement to develop and commercialize Quratis’ tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, QTP-101, for adults and adolescents. The total amount of the deal is around ₩1.2 trillion (US$1.1 billion), according to the Seoul-based company.
LONDON – Biotech billionaire Bob Duggan is taking a majority stake in Summit Therapeutics plc, as part of a proposed subscription and placing to raise $50 million. The scheme has to be voted through by shareholders, but assuming it is approved, Duggan will control approximately 73% of Summit’s enlarged share capital. Duggan previously invested $25 million in the company at the start of 2019, and already holds 49% of the stock.
HYDERABAD, India – India, home to a quarter of the global tuberculosis (TB) cases, plans to enhance its capacity to fight TB drug resistance and bolster susceptibility testing under a new initiative launched by the Geneva-based nonprofit Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).
LONDON – Initiating antiretroviral treatment (ART) as soon as infants who are positive for HIV-1 infection are born has significant protective effects, with fewer viral reservoir cells and improved immune system development, according to new research.
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