Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Ona Therapeutics SL has closed an oversubscribed series B at $86.6 million, as clinical development of the lead program ONA-255 in advanced treatment-resistant breast cancer gathers steam.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple loci associated with complex diseases, but these are mostly on regulatory genes in the non-coding part of the genome and it has proved difficult to identify the effector genes that they control. Now, researchers in the U.K. have shown how single cell sequencing at scale can be used to precisely link non-coding GWAS loci to specific protein coding genes and cell types.
IMU Biosciences Ltd. has closed its series A at £40 million (US$53.9 million), adding £28.5 million to the initial close in January 2024, and bringing the total raised since the company’s formation in 2021 to £45 million. Since that first close, IMU has built what is claimed as the world’s largest high-definition immune system dataset, with almost 25,000 profiles of healthy volunteers and disease-specific patient cohorts.
IMU Biosciences Ltd. has closed its series A at £40 million (US$53.9 million), adding £28.5 million to the initial close in January 2024, and bringing the total raised since the company’s formation in 2021 to £45 million. Since that first close, IMU has built what is claimed as the world’s largest high-definition immune system dataset, with almost 25,000 profiles of healthy volunteers and disease-specific patient cohorts.
New data from Grail Inc.’s randomized study of its Galleri multicancer early detection test could not alter the fact that the U.K. trial missed the primary endpoint of reducing the number of cancers diagnosed at stage III and stage IV. But the company is now suggesting that discounting the initial screen, when most late stage cancers were detected, would be more representative of a real-life steady state screening program.
“I need to be honest with you about something important. Most previous Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were caused by a virus called Ebola Zaire, for which we have vaccines and treatments. This outbreak is caused by a different virus called Ebola Bundibugyo. There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for it.” This was the stark message from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) in an open letter to the people of the DRC, as he traveled to the country on Friday, May 29.
GSK plc has announced a breakthrough in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, reporting a functional cure rate of 19% across two phase III trials of its antisense oligonucleotide bepirovirsen.
There are initial signs that President Donald Trump’s most-favored nation (MFN) policy may be further delaying access to new drugs in Europe, as companies hold off commercializing in these countries to avoid lower European prices being referenced in the U.S.
Less than two weeks after the outbreak was officially declared, animal studies of a newly designed vaccine against the Bundibugyo Ebola virus are now underway in the U.S. and U.K., and the Serum Institute of India is standing ready to manufacture the vaccine for clinical trials. If the animal tests are positive, the vaccine will be ready for clinical trials in two to three months.
Less than two weeks after the outbreak was officially declared, animal studies of a newly designed vaccine against the Bundibugyo Ebola virus are now underway in the U.S. and U.K., and the Serum Institute of India is standing ready to manufacture the vaccine for clinical trials. If the animal tests are positive, the vaccine will be ready for clinical trials in two to three months.
