The FDA has cleared AD-NP1, a drug developed by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for heart tissue regeneration, to enter clinical trials. The monoclonal antibody blocks the production of ENPP1 protein, which was found to interfere with healing after a heart attack.
The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to FRF-001, the FOXG1 Research Foundation’s lead gene therapy candidate for the treatment of FOXG1 syndrome. This follows the FDA’s earlier award of rare pediatric disease designation to the investigational therapy.
CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has obtained clearance from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) to conduct clinical trials in China with SYH-2070 injection, a double-stranded small interfering RNA (siRNA) drug for the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia or mixed hyperlipidemia.
Simcere Zaiming Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has obtained IND clearance by the FDA for SIM-0609, a CDH17-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. An IND was also approved in China earlier this month.
About five months after the U.S. FDA disclosed its roadmap to move away from animal testing in favor of new approaches for biopharma drug development, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it is awarding $87 million in contracts over three years to launch the Standardized Organoid Modeling Center.
The FDA has awarded orphan drug designation to Cure Rare Disease’s CRD-003 for the treatment of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type R9 (LGMD2i/R9), a congenital muscular dystrophy caused by biallelic mutations in the FKRP gene.
Resvita Bio Inc. has held a pre-IND meeting with the FDA for RVB-003, its lead investigational therapy for Netherton syndrome. The FDA’s feedback gives the company a pathway to submit an IND for RVB-003 in the first half of next year, with a clinical efficacy read-out anticipated by early 2027.
GC Biopharma Corp. has filed an IND application with the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for a phase I trial of GC-4006A, an mRNA vaccine candidate for COVID-19.