Eli Lilly and Co. plans to buy Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc for $6.3 billion in up-front cash and another potential $1.5 billion through contingent value rights, gaining access to a pipeline of orexin receptor 2 agonists for sleep disorders. The Indianapolis-based pharma is re-entering a field that has multibillion-dollar potential and one that could emulate the success seen with its obesity program. Centessa, of Boston and London, has a lead candidate, cleminorexton (formerly ORX-750), with positive phase IIa data in narcolepsy types 1 and 2 and idiopathic hypersomnia.
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is taking a neuroplastogen approach to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through its planned $1.22 billion acquisition of Transcend Therapeutics Inc. The deal gives Tokyo-headquartered Otsuka access to Transcend’s lead asset, TSND-201, an oral neuroplastogen that has begun patient recruitment for a phase III study in the U.S.
Eli Lilly and Co. is deepening its investment in artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery through a multibillion-dollar expansion of its collaboration with Hong-Kong listed Insilico Medicine Inc. in a move that could broaden its reach into next-generation metabolic therapies.
United Therapeutics Corp. is eyeing a possible priority review in its anticipated supplemental NDA for Tyvaso (treprostinil) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) after the second phase III trial hit its endpoints, even besting the impressive findings from the first phase III study reported last year, and positioning United for a substantial commercial launch in 2027.
The debated and ultimately stock-denting March 26 news from Wave Life Sciences Inc. pushed into the spotlight other firms working with INHBE and activin E.
Newco Idel Therapeutics GmbH has closed a €9 million (US$10.4 million) seed round to advance the development of a technology for delivery of cytotoxic drugs directly into the cytosol of tumor cells.
Apparently put off by data with a higher dose, investors in Wave Life Sciences Inc. backed away after the company rolled out data from the phase I portion of its first-in-human Inlight trial evaluating 250 mg of WVE-007, an INHBE GalNAc-siRNA prospect, in otherwise healthy overweight or obese adults.
Maze Therapeutics Inc. continues its journey toward a pivotal program after sharing positive top-line data from the phase II Horizon study with MZE-829, an oral, small-molecule, dual-mechanism APOL1 inhibitor, in patients with broad APOL1-mediated kidney disease (AMKD).
The U.S. FDA approved Corcept Therapeutics Inc.’s oral, selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonist, Lifyorli (relacorilant), nearly four months ahead of schedule for adults with platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer. A short time after the agency approved Lifyorli, it cleared Denali Therapeutics Inc.’s Avlayah (tividenofusp alfa) under the accelerated approval pathway for mucopolysaccharidosis II, also called Hunter syndrome, ahead of the April 5 PDUFA date.
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