Wall Street promptly started speculating about the product’s odds in the graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) marketplace shortly after Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Incyte Corp. scored U.S. FDA approval – well ahead of the Aug. 29 PDUFA date – of Niktimvo (axatilimab), an anti-CSF-1R antibody for the treatment of chronic disease after failure of at least two prior lines of systemic therapy in adult and pediatric patients weighing at least 40 kg (88.2 lbs.).
Aiming to offer an advantage over Dupixent (dupilumab, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.), dermatology-focused Galderma Holding SA won clearance from the U.S. FDA for Nemluvio (nemolizumab) as a prefilled pen providing a subcutaneous injection to treat adults with prurigo nodularis (PN).
Novo Nordisk A/S presented a mixed bag of R&D results for its cardiometabolic assets in the first half of 2024 as it axed three drug candidates but advanced one to a late-stage study. In the search for greener pastures beyond a crowding obesity market, Novo announced Aug. 7 that it advanced ziltivekimab into a phase III study to assess the subcutaneous therapy’s cardiovascular outcomes in acute myocardial infarction patients.
Seoul, South Korea-based Adel Inc. raised ₩17 billion (US$12.39 million) in bridge financing to advance its pipeline of Alzheimer’s disease therapies, including its tau antibody-based ADEL-Y01 candidate, currently in a U.S.-based phase I study.
Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd. said it plans to list on Nasdaq by the end of 2024. The company had earlier announced plans to list in February 2023, but it delayed the listing due to market conditions.
The disappointments continue for Fibrogen Inc., which is terminating work on its once-promising anti-CTGF monoclonal antibody, pamrevlumab, after reporting missed endpoints in two late-stage pancreatic cancer studies, and cutting its workforce by about 75%.
Succeeding where others have failed in an indication with high unmet need, Celldex Therapeutics Inc. disclosed top-line data from the phase II trial with barzolvolimab (barzo) against two common forms of chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU): cold urticaria (ColdU) and symptomatic dermographism (SD).
Astellas Pharma Inc.’s claudin (CLDN) 18.2-targeted monoclonal antibody, zolbetuximab, received a positive opinion from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) and could be the first CLDN18.2 molecule to be approved in Europe if it receives final approval.
Biogen Inc. and partner Eisai Co. Ltd. said the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has adopted a negative opinion on the marketing bid for lecanemab in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild AD. The humanized anti-soluble aggregated amyloid-beta monoclonal antibody is approved in the U.S., Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Israel, and is being sold in the U.S., where it’s branded Leqembi, as well as Japan and China. Eisai, of Tokyo, will ask the CHMP to re-examine the matter.
Many respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease vaccines are for older adults but Merck & Co. Inc.’s monoclonal antibody, MK-1654 (clesrovimab), which just produced positive top-line phase IIb/III data, aims at a far smaller and younger market. Data for protecting healthy preterm and full-term infants from RSV disease show the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial hit all its primary efficacy and safety endpoints, including the incidence of RSV-associated medically attended lower respiratory infection for 150 days compared to placebo.
RSS
