After an eight-year academic collaboration with Glaxosmithkline plc, Kynos Therapeutics Ltd. has spun out of Edinburgh University with a £9 million (US$11.7 million) financing and a phase I-ready program. The company specializes in kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO), a mitochondrial outer membrane protein that is a critical gatekeeper in the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism, and which regulates inflammation and immunity.

Back in 2015, a black box warning from the U.S. FDA about the cardiovascular risks of testosterone therapy products caused a major upheaval in the market.

Ninnion LLC, a startup developing psychedelic medicines focused on brain injury, chronic pain, inflammation and addiction disorders, has formed a new scientific board (SAB) that Chief Development Officer Bill Massey said will ”be a tremendous asset in navigating the uncharted waters of psychedelic drug development."

After securing $70 million in series B funding, Chinese biotech Medilink Therapeutics Co. Ltd. is gearing up to enter the clinic with its next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

Moonlake Therapeutics AG is making headway on its mission to establish a broad dermatology and rheumatology franchise around its sole product, sonelokimab, announcing it is poised to start a phase II study in hidradenitis suppurativa.

Biotechs that tackle the effects of aging are beginning to make headlines: in January Altos Labs Inc. launched with a reported investment from Jeff Bezos. With Bezos getting involved with San Francisco-based Altos, the immediate reaction was that anti-aging biotechs would be there for the benefit of billionaires searching for eternal life. Not so, according to London U.K.-based Genflow Biosciences plc, which hopes to show that fighting aging is really about improving health as people age.

By combining an activator of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax with an inhibitor of the anti-apoptotic protein BCL-XL, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have been able to overcome resistance to apoptosis in both a wide range of cell lines and animal studies. The team reported its findings in the March 7, 2022, issue of Nature Communications.

A new study from researchers at Aevisbio Inc. and the National Institutes of Health on the effect of 3,6’-dithiopomalidomide on neuroinflammation adds new detail to what might one day become a significant new therapeutic strategy to treat Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders.

Pathalys Pharma Inc., a privately held startup focused on developing new medicines chronic kidney disease, has emerged with an exclusive license from Tokyo-based EA Pharma Co. Ltd. to develop the small molecule calcimimetic upacicalcet for markets outside of Japan and Asia.