Roche AG’s disclosure in December that prasinezumab, partnered with Prothena plc, fell short of its primary phase IIb endpoint put the spotlight on microtubule binding region (MTBR)-targeting therapies in neurological disorders.
The J.P. Morgan (JPM) Healthcare Conference in San Francisco kicked off with a resounding bang as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) disclosed plans to acquire Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc. for $132 per share, which equates to an equity value of about $14.6 billion.
Data from two out of three positive studies faced the U.S. FDA’s Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee as members examined the package submitted by Seikagaku Corp., of Tokyo, for SI-6603 (condoliase), a chemonucleolytic drug for radicular leg pain associated with lumbar disc hernia.
The U.S. FDA’s Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee will scrutinize Jan. 10 the safety and efficacy of Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s SI-6603 (condoliase), a chemonucleolytic drug for radicular leg pain associated with lumbar disc hernia.
Coave Therapeutics SA has completed the transition to becoming a genetic medicines specialist, after divesting its single ophthalmology program and raising $33 million in a series A round.
2024 saw the completion of several cellular-resolution brain maps, including the entire fly brain and a comprehensive connections map of a cubic centimeter of human brain. 2025 began with the addition of another important map. In the Jan. 1, 2025, issue of Nature, researchers from the Allen Institute presented a map of areas and cell types where aging most affected the mouse brain.
Stressing the importance of integrity in taxpayer-funded biomedical research, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that Athira Pharma Inc. has agreed to pay more than $4 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that it failed to report potential research misconduct to the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity in grant applications and progress reports.
After raising AU$16.75 million (US$10.4 million) in a series A round, Celosia Therapeutics Pty Ltd. is heading toward the clinic with its novel gene therapy that targets TDP-43, a protein directly linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology.
Psychedelic drugs continued to make regulatory and clinical headway, as non-believers converted to believers in the category once regarded with skepticism, to say the least.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) notched another late-stage failure in the form of Neumora Therapeutics Inc.’s data from the phase III Koastal-1 study, the first of three replicant trials in the pivotal program testing kappa opioid receptor antagonist navacaprant.