Aribio Co. Ltd. signed a $600 million license deal with Acino International AG, an Arcera Life Sciences subsidiary, granting the latter commercial rights to its oral Alzheimer’s disease therapy, AR-1001, in select countries including the Middle East.
Insmed Inc.’s chair and CEO, Will Lewis, called the phase IIb trial of TPIP in pulmonary arterial hypertension a “clear and unequivocal success,” with analysts and investors wholeheartedly agreeing, as the company’s shares surged 28.7% June 10.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. have released an open-source AI model that can predict the binding strength of small molecules as well as structures of proteins and biomolecular complexes. The model, which is called Boltz-2 and was released by the research team on the developer platform Github on June 6, addresses a major bottleneck in drug discovery with its improved ability to predict binding strengths.
As it advances its nonopioid analgesic ATX-101 breakthrough therapy through a phase IIb registration trial, Allay Therapeutics secured $57.5 million in a series D round, which included an investment from the company’s Japanese partner. ATX-101, a configuration of sodium ion channel blocker bupivacaine and a biopolymer, which is in a phase IIb registration study, is designed to offer pain relief following total knee arthroplasty.
The EMA’s safety committee has issued a warning that the GLP-1 receptor agonist Ozempic (semaglutide, Novo Nordisk A/S) can cause an acute eye condition in which the optic nerve is damaged by a sudden loss of blood supply. After reviewing several large epidemiological studies, clinical trial and in-market data, EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee has concluded non-anterior ischemic optic neuropathy is a “very rare” side effect of Ozempic, that “may affect up to one in 10,000 people taking semaglutide.
The EMA has issued a new guideline on how to include and/or retain pregnant and breastfeeding women in clinical trials, in a move that it says “marks a change in the paradigm.” The aim is to ensure that trial sponsors generate robust clinical data in these populations.
Ascletis Pharma Inc.’s once-daily oral fatty acid synthase inhibitor, denifanstat, demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements compared to placebo, meeting all primary and secondary endpoints in a phase III trial for moderate to severe acne vulgaris.
It’s a good week to be working on drugs targeting STAT6. Kymera Therapeutics Inc.’s, KT-621, the first oral STAT6 degrader candidate to enter the clinic, surpassed expectations with impressive safety, pharmacokinetic and biomarker data from a phase I trial, while potential fast-followers from Nurix Therapeutics Inc. and Recludix Pharma Inc. advanced via respective partnerships with Sanofi SA.
New dose-escalation data from Verastem Oncology’s phase I/II cancer study in China prompted the company to say it was encouraged by the efficacy results. However, investors felt otherwise, as the stock lost about 20% of its value the day the initial results were released.
Sanofi SA is to acquire Blueprint Medicines Inc. in a $9.5 billion deal that will give the French pharma ownership of a marketed rare disease immunotherapy heading toward blockbuster status, a follow-on product in phase II/III, and a phase II clinical program relevant to a number of autoimmune diseases.
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