Sangamo Therapeutics Inc.’s second large, worldwide licensing deal for its capsid technology in the past five months is with Astellas Pharma Inc. The California-based company is getting $20 million up front and the chance to bring in up to $1.3 billion in fees and milestone payments in an agreement spanning five potential disease targets for gene therapies to treat neurological diseases.
Investors will get more details during the International Lewy Body Dementia Conference in Amsterdam late next month, but Wall Street is already buzzing about Cognition Therapeutics Inc.’s data from the phase II study with CT-1812 in dementia with Lewy bodies.
Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA scored €44 million (US$46.26 million) up front in a potential €117 million licensing deal with EA Pharma Co. Ltd. to pad the clinical runway of its late-stage oral schizophrenia asset, evenamide (NW-3509), sending company stock prices up near 20%.
By the end of November 2024, the BioWorld Neurological Diseases Index had dropped 13.4%, deepening its decline of 9.4% at the end of August. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 19.16% in the first 11 months of the year, building on a 10.81% gain reported at the end of October. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index posted a year-to-date increase of 6.27% through November, retreating from its peak gain of 11.7% in August.
News that Trevi Therapeutics Inc. got the size just right of the phase IIb Coral trial with Haduvio (oral nalbuphine extended release) led the company’s shares (NASDAQ:TRVI) to close Dec. 12 at $3.60, up $1.11, or 45%, after trading as high as $4.60.
CNS specialist Noema Pharma AG has added a further $44 million to its series B, bringing the total for the round to $147 million. The new financing bolsters the balance sheet as the Basel, Switzerland-based company progresses four phase II trials, with key data readouts expected in 2025.
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have successfully replicated the design of regulatory T cells, achieving local targeted immune suppression and protection from CAR T-cell cytotoxicity. Many of the treatments used so far in the context of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders lead to systemic immunosuppression. In this sense, limiting immunosuppression locally to targeted tissues may help overcome systemic toxicity.
Bionomics is progressing BNC-210 to phase III trials in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following positive feedback from the U.S. FDA. Final data from the phase II Attune study showed that BNC-210 improved PTSD symptom severity at week 12 with efficacy observed as early as week four.
Cervomed Inc. executives said they intend to scrutinize low plasma drug concentrations that appeared to spoil results from the phase IIb Rewind-LB trial testing neflamapimod in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies.
The U.S. FDA has greenlit the first steps of Uniqure NV’s accelerated approval pathway for gene therapy AMT-130 to treat Huntington’s disease. The agency said data from the ongoing phase I/II studies compared to natural history external control are muscular enough to get the process going without having to dive into additional studies.
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