Graves’ disease is a form of autoimmune hyperthyroidism where the main extrathyroidal feature is thyroid eye disease. Autoantibodies that stimulate thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) are released and orchestrate hormone production in the thyroid tissue and the orbit. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. has developed REGN-24493, a monoclonal antibody (MAb) that binds TSHR and blocks its activation by those autoantibodies.
Lys Therapeutics SAS is advancing LYS-241 toward the clinic with the support of more than €25 million (US$33 million) in funding raised since the company’s inception in 2021. The financing includes a grant of more than $5 million from The Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Bionyra Pharma has emerged with a $165 million oversubscribed series A and a portfolio of three antibodies with extended half-lives that are designed to offer improvements over existing classes of monoclonal antibodies for treating chronic inflammatory diseases.
In a deal viewed as a big win for both companies, Abbvie Inc. is buying Apogee Therapeutics Inc. for $10.9 billion. The transaction calls for shareholders of Apogee to receive $135.11 per share in cash, marking a nearly 50% premium over Friday’s closing stock price, and puts lead candidate zumilokibart, a late-stage, half-life extended monoclonal antibody targeting IL-13 that has shown competitive phase II data in atopic dermatitis, in the hands of a pharma giant with a well-established immunology franchise.
Avalo Therapeutics Inc. is advancing AVTX-010, a long-acting next-generation anti-IL-1β monoclonal antibody with potential for hidradenitis suppurativa and additional inflammatory disorders
Despite some back-and-forth with the U.S. FDA regarding inclusion in the somewhat controversial Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program, Sanofi SA’s Tzield (teplizumab) gained FDA clearance, expanding use of the CD3-directed monoclonal antibody as a disease-modifying therapy for patients with recently diagnosed stage 3 type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Ethyreal Bio Inc. has come out of stealth mode in order to disclose preclinical data for ETHY-001, its monoclonal antibody targeting thyroid stimulating hormone receptor, at the Endocrine Society’s 2026 annual meeting on June 15.
Investors in Dianthus Therapeutics Inc. apparently chose to ignore subtleties in the difference between efforts with that firm’s claseprubart vs. those by competitor Sanofi SA, which said that the phase III Mobilize study testing riliprubart in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) will be stopped for futility.
In its largest acquisition to date, Incyte Inc. snagged rights to phase III-stage VGA-039, a monoclonal antibody the firm said could offer a new standard of care in von Willebrand disease (VWD), in a buyout of Vega Therapeutics Inc. that includes a $1.25 billion up-front payment and up to $750 million tied to the achievement of sales milestones. The announcement was followed shortly by news of another buyout, Johnson & Johnson’s deal to acquire Firefly Bio Inc. for $1 billion in cash, both moves continuing this year’s trend of larger, more strategic M&A transactions.