Zenas Biopharma LLC has raised $118 million in a series B round to support a global phase III trial of its lead asset as well as other immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases in its pipeline. The study, expected to begin in 2023, will evaluate obexelimab for the treatment of patients with immunoglobulin G4-related disease in late 2022.
Nona Biosciences Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Harbour Biomed Therapeutics Ltd. launched in November to provide “idea to IND” services, has struck a deal with Moderna Inc. to develop nucleic acid-based immunotherapies. The candidates will be based on Harbour’s heavy chain only antibody discovery platform.
Fresh off announcing a new $1.2 billion joint drug discovery and development project with Sanofi SA, Insilico Medicine Inc. founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov joined a chorus of executives at the Asia Summit on Global Health in proclaiming the critical importance of partnership between biopharma, tech companies, and regulators, even amid rising tensions between China and the West.
Innovent Biologics Inc. said that, compared to a placebo, both doses of its anti-PCSK-9 monoclonal antibody tafolecimab tested in a phase III trial “yielded significant and durable reductions” in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and showed a favorable safety profile in Chinese patients with non-familial hypercholesterolemia.
Luye Pharma Group has received marketing approval from China’s NMPA for the triple monoamine reuptake inhibitor Ruoxinlin (toludesvenlafaxine hydrochloride) to treat patients with major depressive disorder, a condition that “has become one of the most prevalent mental disorders in China, causing a heavy burden on patients, their families and the entire society,” said Luye President Yang Rongbing.
Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s subsidiary Eucure Biopharma Co. Ltd. has granted Isu Abxis Co. Ltd. rights to use its humanized agonistic anti-CD40 antibody YH-003 to develop cancer drugs.
Zhuhai Beihai Biotech Co. Ltd. has raised nearly ¥200 million (US$27.5 million) in a series B round slated to support clinical trials for its lead candidates as well as preparations to file an NDA for its core asset, BH-009.
Shanghai’s State Medical Products Administration announced that GSK plc has been banned from participating in volume-based procurement tenders until April 29, 2024, after failing a good manufacturing practices (GMP) inspection at a contract manufacturing plant in Poland that makes products for China.
Nearly six months after ditching its phase II/III COVID-19 vaccination study to chase a booster strategy, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. is now ditching the heterologous booster.
Suzhou Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. reported a phase III trial testing the company’s deuterium-substituted sorafenib derivative donafenib in patients with progressive locally advanced or metastatic radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer met its primary endpoint following a preplanned interim analysis which found the drug significantly prolonged median progression-free survival vs. a placebo.