BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Reversal of pumping direction is reversal of fortune for tumor cells; Cholesterol drug affects checkpoint blockade via MHC1; Heart development protein has role in adult immunity.
BOGOTA, Colombia and VANCOUVER, Canada – Anvisa, Brazil’s health care surveillance agency, re-started phase III trials for Coronavac, the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd., after a suspension of just two days. “Anvisa understands that it has sufficient subsidies to allow the resumption of vaccination,” the regulator said on Nov. 11. Anvisa said it plans to continue monitoring “the possible relationship of causality” between an unexpected serious adverse event and the vaccine.
HONG KONG – Kira Pharmaceuticals is riding high after completing a $46 million fundraiser and appointing Frederick Beddingfield as CEO. “The $46 million comprises a series A of $18 million and a series B of $26 million, with investors Quan Capital, 6 Dimensions Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Sinopharm Capital participating in both rounds,” Beddingfield told BioWorld.
3D Medicines Inc. has licensed in from Aravive Inc. a phase Ib-completed GAS6/AXL inhibitor known as AVB-500 in a deal worth up to $219 million. The Chinese firm will have the rights to develop and commercialize the drug candidate across all oncology indications in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
LONDON – Results from the phase I/II trial of Coronavac, a COVID-19 vaccine based on a traditional inactivated whole SARS-CoV-2 virus that circulated in China in the early days of the pandemic, show it is safe and induces an antibody response in healthy volunteers ages 18 to 59.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said that it would fund a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine under development by Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Chengdu, China.
Fochon Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., out-licensed FCN-338, a BCL-2 inhibitor, to Eli Lilly and Co. for an up-front payment of $40 million along with milestones and royalties. The deal marks another example of Chinese biotech companies reversing the licensing flow.
Yantai, China-based biologics developer Remegen Ltd. launched the biggest pre-revenue biotech IPO in Hong Kong this year by raising HK$3.99 billion ($514.5 million) on Nov 9. With this IPO, Remegen’s CEO Jianmin Fang told BioWorld in an exclusive interview, the company aims to take its assets abroad.
HONG KONG, BEIJING and CAJICA, Colombia – Anvisa, Brazil’s health care surveillance agency, has halted the final-stage trials for Beijing, China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate Coronavac after a serious adverse event occurred on Oct. 29 and was communicated to the regulator. Anvisa then evaluated the data and suspended the trials after weighing the risk-benefit of continuing them in the country, it said.
HONG KONG – Haihe Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has outsourced the China rights to its non-opioid analgesics candidates, RMX-1001 and RMX-1002, to 3D Biomedicine Science & Technology Co. Ltd. in the latest collaboration between the two companies. “Haihe has now out-licensed our non-oncology assets and can now focus on our oncology therapeutics,” Ruiping Dong, CEO at Haihe, told BioWorld.
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