Sperogenix Therapeutics Ltd. has acquired exclusive greater China rights to Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG’s glucocorticoid analogue vamorolone in a deal worth up to $124 million.
LONDON – Novo Holdings has inspired the formation of the second new fund in 18 months aiming to feed more capital into the commercialization of Scandinavian science, acting as cornerstone investor in Sound Bioventures Fund I. The new fund greeted the New Year with a first close of €110 million (US$124 million), to be invested in private biopharmas with late preclinical or clinical programs, primarily in rare diseases.
China is making some advances in approving and reimbursing drugs to treat or prevent rare diseases. More than 60 rare disease drugs have been approved for marketing in China, with more than 40 of those included in the national medical insurance system, according to figures released at a national conference on rare diseases held in Beijing Dec. 18.
China is making some advances in approving and reimbursing drugs to treat or prevent rare diseases. More than 60 rare disease drugs have been approved for marketing in China, with more than 40 of those included in the national medical insurance system, according to figures released at a national conference on rare diseases held in Beijing Dec. 18.
LONDON – A pilot study has shown that whole genome sequencing can pinpoint the genetic causes of rare diseases, even in people who had previously not been given a diagnosis after undergoing sequencing of their protein coding exome.
China’s Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) released a draft guide on clinical trials of drugs for rare disease as part of an ongoing push to encourage new drug development and nudge developers to focus on biomarkers, pharmacometrics and patient-reported outcomes. Both are needed to continue moving China’s R&D capabilities up the value chain and closer to being on par with the capabilities of other countries that are at the forefront of new drug development.
As if it were needed, Amicus Therapeutics Inc.’s spin-off of its gene therapy work and PDUFA VII’s provisions to increase the capacity of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research offered further proof this week of the global explosion that’s happening in the regenerative medicine field.
Astrazeneca plc’s Alexion rare diseases unit has taken an option to buy all remaining equity in Caelum Biosciences Inc., adding a rare disease drug to its pipeline in a deal worth $500 million. At the center of the deal is CAEL-101, a potentially first-in-class monoclonal antibody designed to tackle the toxic amyloid deposits that build up in organs of people with the rare disease light chain amyloidosis.
HONG KONG – Canbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. signed a collaboration and licensing agreement that could be worth $581 million, gaining global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize gene therapy candidates from Logicbio Therapeutics Inc. for the treatment of Fabry and Pompe diseases. The candidates are based on Logicbio’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) sL65, the first produced from its Saavy capsid development platform.
BEIJING – Rare disease specialist Canbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Beijing, said it is collaborating with the Horae Gene Therapy Center at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Medical School to conduct gene therapy research with a focus on neuromuscular conditions.
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