Adocia SA is looking to further apply its Biochaperone formulation technology to metabolic disorders, Olivier Soula, Adocia co-founder and CEO told BioWorld, the firm having recently gained positive top-line phase III results of Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s THDB-0206 injection (Biochaperone Lispro) in diabetes patients in China.

French VC Andera Partners has reached the first close of its Biodiscovery Fund 7 at more than €300 million (US$349 million) and says it is on track to surpass the size of the previous fund, which closed at €456 million during the pandemic-driven boom of 2021.

Tango Therapeutics Inc. plans a pivotal study next year in second-line MTAP-deleted pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma based on positive phase I/II data with next-generation MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitor vopimetostat (TNG-462) in patients with tumors of that type.

Inhibrx Biosciences Inc.’s monoclonal antibody for treating advanced or metastatic, unresectable chondrosarcoma hit its primary endpoint in a registrational phase II study, doubling the company’s stock on Oct. 24. Top-line data from the placebo-controlled study of ozekibart (INBRX-109) produced statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in median progression-free survival in a tough-to-treat patient population that has few remaining options.

Durable reprogramming of human T cells may now be possible thanks to a new technique based on the CRISPRoff and CRISPRon methodology. Researchers from the Arc Institute, Gladstone Institutes, and the University of California San Francisco have stably silenced or activated genes in this type of immune cell without cutting or altering its DNA, making T cells more resistant, active, and effective against tumors.

A technology that combines transcriptomic data and AI enables a novel approach to drug discovery based on the state of cells, how they behave and which genes they express. The Drugreflector model, developed by scientists at Cellarity Inc., learns from gene expression profiles and predicts which compounds could induce beneficial changes in that cellular state to develop a treatment.