Researchers at the University of California San Diego have uncovered a key mechanism underlying the treatment resistance of melanoma with the BRAF V600E mutation through pathways involved in focal adhesion and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. These two processes remodel the tumor cell environment in melanoma through the RAF/MEK cell signaling pathway. However, the combined use of FAK inhibitors with a RAF-MEK clamp overcame this resistance.
Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-focused Callio Therapeutics debuted on March 3 with the closing of a $187 million series A financing round based on cancer drug technology and assets in-licensed from Hummingbird Bioscience Pte Ltd.
As U.S. regulatory uncertainty swirls around the vaccine space and health care in general, Vaxcyte Inc. stands poised for a readout of phase II infant data by the end of this quarter with VAX-24, the 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). The San Carlos, Calif.-based firm will offer top-line safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity data, to be followed by top-line data with the booster dose by the end of this year.
On March 1, 2025, former NIH director Francis Collins’ announced that he had fully resigned from the NIH, where he continued to lead a laboratory after his resignation as director. Collins gave no reason for his resignation, but it comes just before this week’s confirmation hearings for Jay Bhattacharya, who is U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the NIH and who Collins called a “fringe epidemiologist” during the COVID pandemic. It is a bitter irony that when Collins resigned as NIH director in 2021, then-President Joe Biden said that “countless researchers will aspire to follow in his footsteps.”
For executives of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc., the missed primary endpoint in the phase IIb Progress study testing pilavapadin, its non-opioid candidate, in adults with moderate to severe diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain seemed merely a footnote for what CEO Mike Exton called an “exciting and long-awaited day for the Lexicon team, collaborators and patients.”
Abbvie Inc. is buying into the obesity fray in a potential $1.875 billion development and commercialization agreement with Danish peptide drug discovery specialist Gubra A/S. In addition, there will be a $350 million up-front payment as Abbvie takes over the reins of GUB-014295 (referred to as Gubamy), a long-acting analog of the satiety hormone amylin, currently in phase I development.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Alk-Abello, Astrazeneca, Bioarctic, Daiichi, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Immunitybio, Janssen Cilag, Johnson & Johnson, Krystal, Novartis, Outlook, Regeneron, Roche, Vertex.
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