Corner Therapeutics Inc. raised $54 million in a series A financing to create vaccines to protect against cancer and infectious diseases by helping the immune system engineer T cells. The company’s core interest is in advancements in immunotherapy through direct manipulation of T cells, which are the “keys to the kingdom for any cancer therapy,” Nick Seaver, Corner’s chief business officer, told BioWorld.
YS Biopharma Co. Ltd. has received clinical trial approval by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration to begin a phase I trial of its YS-HBV-002 immunotherapeutic vaccine, designed to treat chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The trial will begin in the Philippines in June.
Spikimm SAS has signed an exclusive collaboration and license option agreement with SATT Conectus Alsace SAS for monoclonal antibodies targeting the BK virus. Reactivation of the BK virus (BKV) in patients receiving kidney transplant, bone marrow or stem cell grafts has potential serious consequences.
South Korea’s Eubiologics Co. Ltd. said it gained the World Health Organization’s (WHO) prequalification designation on April 16 for its simplified oral cholera vaccine, approved as Euvichol-S.
The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to the active ingredient in Soligenix Inc.’s Marvax, a heat stable subunit protein vaccine of recombinantly expressed Marburg marburgvirus (MARV) glycoprotein, for the prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis against MARV infection.
Vaccination with infectious Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites (PfSPZ) administered with antimalarial drugs (PfSPZ-CVac) is more effective than vaccination with replication-deficient, radiation-attenuated PfSPZ. However, the requirement for drug administration is a significant limitation of the PfSPZ-CVac strategy.
An enzyme that activates cell death could be targeted to avoid the inflammation and lung lesions caused by influenza A virus (IAV). A collaborative study demonstrated that an inhibitor of receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) blocked necroptosis in infected alveolar epithelial cells and prevented the consequences in the lungs of severe disease.
A team from the University of Southern Denmark has reported the discovery of a novel triaromatic pleuromutilin antibiotic candidate for the treatment of gram-positive bacterial infections. Hit evaluation and optimization of previously reported drug-like pleuromutilin conjugates with broad antibacterial activity led to the identification of compound [I] as the most potent and easily synthesizable antibiotic lead.
In a study from the PHOSP-COVID and ISARIC-4C consortia in the U.K., researchers have discovered inflammatory processes taking place during what is termed “long COVID.” Long COVID is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the continuation or development of new symptoms for 3 or more months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. It is estimated that 1 in 10 SARS-CoV-2 infections results in long COVID, thus affecting about 65 million people worldwide.
Prenosis Inc. gained U.S. FDA de novo marketing authorization for an artificial intelligence-powered rapid diagnostic tool for sepsis, one of the most challenging and deadly conditions in hospitals and reported a distribution agreement with Roche Holding AG. Another pairing also made progress in developing a sepsis in vitro diagnostic this week, as Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH and Randox Laboratories Inc. joined forces and committed €150 million (US$159.63 million) to the effort.
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