PERTH, Australia – Prota Therapeutics Ltd.’s lead candidate PRT-120 induced clinical remission of peanut allergy in 51% of children in a phase IIb clinical trial. There are currently no curative therapies to treat food allergies, Prota Therapeutics CEO Mimi Tang told BioWorld. Peanut allergy in children can be particularly problematic because the only treatment is avoidance.

LONDON – The team that opened up the market for anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs in the treatment of eye diseases has formed a new company, Eyebio Ltd., with the aim of developing a new generation of ocular therapies. David Guyer and Anthony Adamis, founders of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals Inc., which brought Macugen (pegaptanib sodium) through to FDA approval in December 2004, set up Eyebio in August last year, with seed funding from SV Health Investors.

After a landmark clinical trial of the first POLQ inhibitor in cancer last year, a recently formed U.K. biotech is gearing up to bring a potential rival to the clinic in the coming months. Varsity Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Cambridge, is planning to begin a phase I trial of novobiocin, a drug previously used as an antibiotic, which has also been found to inhibit the polymerase theta inhibitor (POLQ) pathway.

Before taking on the role of CEO at Bluesphere Bio Inc., David Apelian would have said the most exciting work he’d done in immuno-oncology had been at Globeimmune Inc., where he’d served as chief medical officer for more than a decade, working in the field of cancer immunotherapy “back when no one believed the immune system would be something we could leverage against cancer.”

In the bad old days of cancer treatment, it was the nasty side effects of chemotherapy that often ended up limiting treatment – and while checkpoint inhibitors have raised the bar in terms of efficacy and safety, they can have dangerous and unpleasant off-target consequences, too. Finding ways to focus the immune system on cancer and limiting any off-target effects will not only make checkpoint inhibitor therapy more tolerable but could also improve survival rates – and Sweden’s Ilya Pharma AB aims to do this with a novel approach combining synthetic biology with cell therapy.

Altesa Biosciences Inc. CEO Brett Giroir called the firm’s scientific co-founders George Painter and Dennis Liotta “the most important developers of drugs against viruses on the planet, and probably in history.” Giroir’s remarks came as the College Park, Ga.-based firm launched to develop and commercialize new antiviral drugs against common respiratory bugs such rhinovirus and parainfluenza, as well as vector-borne threats such as Dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika and Powassan.

Xanadu Bio, a Yale University spinout developing an intranasal SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine booster, has secured an exclusive license from the school for a polymeric nanoparticle delivery platform to support the project. The delivery tech could potentially have future applications for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and even cystic fibrosis.

“The premise of our whole company is that we target molecular machines, but we don’t target the engine,” Adrian Schomburg told BioWorld. Instead, “we interfere with the throttle and other highly specific controls of these machines.” “We,” in this case, is Eisbach Bio GmbH, a German startup that is developing anticancer programs aimed at exploiting synthetic lethality by targeting helicases. Founded in 2019, the company has three programs, a recently announced collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center in oncology, and another program in COVID-19.

PERTH, Australia – After raising AU$7.5 million (US$5.4 million) in a private placement, biopharma company Servatus Ltd. is advancing its microbial biotherapeutics clinical programs targeting serious autoimmune conditions. The Coolum, Queensland-based private company is focused on identifying and developing live microbial biotherapeutics and engineered proteins to treat chronic and autoimmune diseases, as well as non-antibiotic treatments for bacterial infections.

Following Philip Morris International Inc.’s controversial takeover of respiratory drug firm Vectura plc, British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is also making inroads into medical research with U.K.-based Kbio Holdings Ltd., a biotech focused on plant-based medicine.