Matchpoint Therapeutics Inc. has launched with $100 million in financing to research drugs based on covalent chemistry targeting inflammatory diseases, aiming to offer more patient-friendly oral alternatives to the biologic injections that dominate the field.
Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. reported top-line data from its phase II trial of Zilosul (pentosan polysulfate/PPS) that suggest the non-opioid treatment for knee osteoarthritis is effective in navigating pain management but also has the potential to be disease modifying.
Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. announced a AU$66 million (US$46.39 million) capital raise to fund its phase III pivotal trial for injectable Zilosul (pentosan polysulfate) to treat osteoarthritis of the knee.
Shionogi & Co. Ltd. has in-licensed Japan rights to Grunenthal GmbH’s intra-articular injectable, resiniferatoxin, for the treatment of pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee. Currently in phase III trials, RTX is a transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 agonist, which can reversibly desensitize TRPV1-expressing nociceptors. This mechanism may result in long-lasting pain relief.
Gilead Sciences Inc. has bought the privately owned U.K. biotech Mirobio Ltd., paying $405 million for the Oxford-based firm and its checkpoint agonists to treat autoimmune diseases. Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead will gain Mirobio’s discovery platform and entire portfolio of immune inhibitory receptor agonists.
Apollo Therapeutics Group Ltd. has bought worldwide rights to Avalo Therapeutics Inc.’s anti-IL-18 antibody, camoteskimab, in a deal worth up $89 million, taking on development of the early stage drug for arthritis and potentially other diseases.
Inventisbio Co. Ltd. has raised ¥2.084 billion (US$296 million) in an IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market priced at ¥18.12 per share, though its stock saw a disappointing debut, opening at ¥14 per share on the first trading day July 25 and closing at $15.29, for a drop of 15.6%. The stock closed Aug. 1 at ¥14.42.
With enrollment set to finish any day in Selecta Biosciences Inc.’s Dissolve II study testing SEL-212 in chronic refractory gout (CRG), investor appetite runs high in the space, as contenders line up to take on Horizon Therapeutics plc’s Krystexxa (pegloticase), the only product approved for CRG.
South Korea’s Medipost Co. Ltd. is gearing up for phase III trials in the U.S. of its stem cell therapy, Cartistem, an allogeneic human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy for treatment of knee articular damage in patients with osteoarthritis.
More than 10% of Americans suffer from chronic pain, and how to prevent acute pain from turning chronic has been a critical question in pain research. But according to a study published in the May 11, 2022, issue of Science Translational Medicine, that approach has it backwards. In several animal models of pain, the resolution of acute pain was an active process. Chronic pain happened when those active processes failed to occur.
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