On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration another significant victory in its attempts to defund NIH-sponsored research. In a 5-4 decision, the justices paused the June 16 order of U.S. District Judge William Young to restore funding for hundreds of canceled NIH research grants focusing on gender and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The funding had first been cut through a series of executive orders shortly after President Donald Trump resumed power in January.
After announcing in April that it would discontinue development of its lead candidate, sozinibercept (OPT-302), in wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), Opthea Ltd. has come to a settlement agreement that will allow it to avoid bankruptcy and continue operations.
Singapore-based Immortal Dragons has launched with $40 million under management, mostly from its founder Boyang Wang, with a focus on investing in early stage companies developing treatments to extend life.
With the trial sites now open for its CRISPR-edited T-cell receptor immunotherapy trial, Anocca AB has raised SEK440 million (US$46 million) to fund the phase I part of the multicenter study to completion. The company’s engineered T-cell receptor T-cell therapy (TCR-T) is first being tested against KRAS mutations in pancreatic cancer.
“Our mission is to apply our protein-protein interaction (PPI) big data-generation platform to create novel antibody therapeutics,” Proteina Co. Ltd. CEO Yoon Tae-young recently told BioWorld. “We have been working to build a proprietary technology platform for more than 15 years,” Yoon said, “and we take pride in the fact that we made our own technology platform, instead of running a company based on licensed-in technology.”