The significant risks and high costs associated with neurological R&D has tended to keep companies and investors on the sidelines over the past few years. However, thanks to research progress and the development of new technologies, business development and investing in the space is heating up once again.
Biovie Inc. Chairman Terren Peizer said Neurmedix Inc. “had been offered a better deal in the shorter term,” but the contract signed by the two firms – which installs entrepreneur Cuong Do the new CEO of Biovie, replacing Peizer – made more sense to both parties. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Biovie is taking over the assets of Neurmedix Inc., of San Diego, bringing aboard phase III-ready NE-3107, an oral small-molecule therapy designed to inhibit insulin resistance in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
One of the keys to making a schizophrenia drug work is reducing the side effects, which, if they are powerful enough, will often cause patients to cease the treatment. Laxminarayan Bhat, Reviva Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc.’s CEO, told BioWorld that new phase II data of the company’s lead candidate shows the drop-out rate was low compared to other schizophrenia drugs.
Casualties continue to accrue in Huntington’s disease, but drug developers continue their work in the challenging, fatal genetic disorder that afflicts an estimated 2.71 per 100,000 people globally. In March, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG pulled the plug on its phase III Generation HD1 study with the antisense therapy tominersen, licensed from Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., in a tie-up that dates back to the spring of 2013. Roche subsidiary Genentech Inc. said the move was based on an independent data monitoring committee's preplanned look at the drug's risk-benefit profile.
PERTH, Australia – Implicit Bioscience Ltd.’s lead candidate, IC-14, is the first anti-CD14 monoclonal antibody (MAb) to progress to the clinic as it enters a phase II trial in the U.S. in COVID-19 patients.
New and updated preclinical and clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting, including: Autobahn, Avadel, Lundbeck, Prothena, Teva.
LONDON – The largest study to date, involving 236,379 confirmed cases, shows that 1 in 3 survivors of COVID-19 was diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition within six months of contracting the infection. For 13% of those patients, it was their first such diagnosis.
New top-line data from Scholar Rock Holding Group’s phase II Topaz trial of apitegromab (SRK-015) in patients with type 2 and type 3 spinal muscular atrophy generated enough proof-of-concept results for the company to plan on initiating a phase III for later this year. But the 12-month data didn’t stop the Cambridge, Mass.-based company’s stock (NASDAQ:SRRK) from struggling mightily on April 6 as shares closed 20.3% lower at $35.97 each.
Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. President Serge Stankovic said the company was “kept completely in [the] dark” by the FDA regarding specifics about what the agency found wrong a month ago with the sNDA for Nuplazid (pimavanserin) – until, that is, the agency’s complete response letter (CRL) landed on the firm’s desk.
HONG KONG – SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. partner Arvelle Therapeutics GmbH, now part of Angelini Pharma, has received European Commission (EC) approval for Ontozry (cenobamate), a treatment for drug-resistant focal-onset seizures. The approval was granted for focal-onset seizures with or without secondary generalization in adults who have not been adequately controlled despite a history of treatment with at least two anti-epileptic medicines.