Biopharmas in Asia-Pacific raising money in public or private financings, including: CASI, D3 Bio, Emergex Vaccines, Hutchison China Meditech, Immutep, Juventas Cell Therapy, Oragenics, Qiming Venture Partners, Verona.
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.
HONG KONG – Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has signed a research and development collaboration agreement with fellow Israeli biotech company Mybiotics Pharma Ltd. to identify and optimize the selected microbiome repertoire associated with the response to Aramchol (arachidyl amido cholanoic acid), Galmed’s fatty acid bile acid conjugate treating nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
Moderna Inc.’s phase III win with its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, lifted spirits while validating the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm’s platform, as Wall Street buzzed with comparisons between the prospects that have yielded late-stage data thus far.
LONDON – A second COVID-19 vaccine has reported positive results in an interim phase III analysis, with Russia’s Sputnik V showing 92% efficacy. The news comes two days after the first readout from a phase III COVID-19 vaccine trial reported 90% efficacy for Pfizer Inc. and Biontech SE’s BNT-162b2.
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.
HONG KONG – Peptidream Inc. has partnered with four other Japanese companies to research and develop peptide therapeutics capable of neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as potential future coronavirus outbreaks. Peptiaid Inc., the joint venture established with Fujitsu Ltd., Mizuho Financial Group Inc. subsidiary Mizuho Capital Co. Ltd., Takenaka Corp. and Kishida Chemical Co. Ltd., will have capital totaling ¥599 million (US$5.73 million) by Dec. 31.
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