LONDON – Four decades of academic research at the University of California, San Francisco, is to be translated through to the clinic with funding from a €1 million (US$1.2 million) European Commission grant. The money, awarded to a Dutch/German consortium will fund the generation and optimization of antibodies designed to neutralize oxidized phospholipids that mediate inflammatory changes in a swathe of diseases. The consortium that won the Eurostars award is led by Oxitope Pharma BV.

The proinflammatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor has been demonstrated to drive the induction and progression of spondyloarthritis in mice and to be associated with human disease, according to the findings of an international study led by researchers at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

Pacira Biosciences Inc. will add to its core non-opioid-based therapies business by buying Flexion Therapeutics Inc. for $427 million. That brings into the company’s fold Zilretta (triamcinolone acetonide extended-release injectable suspension) for treating osteoarthritis knee pain, an injectable non-opioid that’s already FDA approved in addition to being in a phase II study for treating shoulder osteoarthritis.

Less than two weeks after Japan’s MHLW became the first regulatory agency to clear avacopan for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, the FDA has followed suit. It cleared the oral, small-molecule C5aR antagonist for use as an adjunct therapy for adults with the two main forms of the rare autoimmune renal disease, granulomatosis with polyangiitis and microscopic polyangiitis, in combination with standard therapy.