Ensho Therapeutics Inc. launched in July after licensing a pipeline of four oral α4β7 inhibitors for inflammatory and gastrointestinal disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), from EA Pharma Co. Ltd. “Millions of people worldwide are living with IBD,” Ensho founder, president and executive chair Neena Bitritto-Garg recently told BioWorld, “and while there are a number of approved medications to address the symptoms of IBD, it remains a difficult-to-treat disease with high relapse rates for a considerable proportion of patients.”

Researchers from University of Washington presented the discovery of novel bumped kinase inhibitor (BKI) derived compound (BKIDC), BKIDC-1553, being developed for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Montara Therapeutics Inc. has received $8 million seed financing from several investors to further its development of its ’binary pharmacology’ for diseases of the brain.

Researchers from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University and Shaoxing People's Hospital presented preclinical data for the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) inhibitor STX-0119, which has been previously validated in models of cancer.

Scientists at Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH have made the ketohexokinase (KHK) inhibitor BI-9787 freely available as a tool compound via the company’s Opnme program.

DeepSA, an edit-based generative framework that utilizes deep simulated annealing (SA), was used to develop novel local anesthetics with multiple activities. Researchers from Sichuan University applied DeepSA to generate over 400 analogs of the local anesthetic articaine.

Researchers from Northeast Normal University in Changchun demonstrated that compound AW-01178 reversed the abnormal regulation of E-cadherin by inhibiting the class I HDAC enzyme.

Beijing DP Technology Co. Ltd. has nominated DPT-0415, a novel small molecule targeting lipoprotein‐associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), as a preclinical candidate for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME).

Even though the treatment options that exist for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are growing, the clinical outcome of patients is still unfavorable. In AML dysregulation of the tyrosine kinase receptors, including RAS, RAF, MEK and ERK, and of the Aurora kinase family (AURK) exists, are both tied to AML development and progression.