Chengdu-based Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc., known for its Trimer-Tag technology, raised $230 million in a series C financing round. The proceeds will, most notably, help it advance its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, S-Trimer (SCB-2019), to a global phase II/III trial by June. Following its $43 million series B round in December 2019, Clover said on Tuesday, Feb. 23, that it raised more than $400 million in the last 12 months. The company uses its Trimer-Tag technology platform to produce covalently-trimerized fusion proteins to develop protein-based vaccines and biologic cancer therapies.

HONG KONG – China is steadily greenlighting more COVID-19 vaccines and drugs to go deeper into the clinic, giving the country a growing arsenal against the disease. To date, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved a handful of drugs and 16 domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine candidates for trials, up from 11 in September 2020.

PERTH, Australia – The fight against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma may finally see some progress, after experiments using 3D models of the tumor in animal studies showed that a combination therapy of the polyamine inhibitor AMXT-1501 (Aminex Therapeutics Inc.) and the ornithine decarboxylase 1 inhibitor difluoromethylornithine could eradicate cancer cells.

BioWorld tracked a total of 295 phase I, II and III clinical news items in January, a rise of 39% compared with the number recorded during the pre-pandemic month of January 2020.

PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration is proposing changes to its fees and charges and is asking stakeholders for feedback on three different proposed fee structures for the 2021-2022 financial year.

HONG KONG – Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has agreed to pay Ribon Therapeutics Inc. as much as ¥15.4 billion (US$147.3 million) for exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the company’s phase I PARP7 inhibitor RBN-2397 for the treatment of solid tumors in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and ASEAN countries.

Another monoclonal antibody therapy has entered the pandemic fray with the FDA granting emergency use authorization (EUA) for bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) 700 mg and etesevimab (JS016 or LY-CoV016) 1,400 mg as a cocktail for treating mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients aged 12 and up at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.

PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has granted provisional approval to Astrazeneca Pty Ltd. for its COVID-19 vaccine, a recombinant adenovirus vaccine, making it the second COVID-19 vaccine to receive regulatory approval in Australia, following the Jan. 26 provisional approval for Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd.’s COVID-19 vaccine, branded Comirnaty.

HONG KONG – A Japanese phase III study of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s interleukin-6 inhibitor Actemra (tocilizumab) in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 pneumonia has read out, expanding what’s known about the drug’s use in the pandemic, which had been inconclusive until recently, though is now known to reduce mortality in the vulnerable population.