DUBLIN – Translate Bio Inc. is the first beneficiary to gain from Sanofi SA’s massive $11.7 billion addition to its balance sheet, following its recent disposal of its holdings in long-time partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Lexington, Mass.-based Translate Bio is getting $300 million up front, another $125 million in equity investment and up to $1.9 billion in milestones under a major expansion of an existing agreement with Paris-based Sanofi to develop mRNA-based vaccines for infectious disease.
DUBLIN – Top-line data from a phase II pivotal trial of CP-101, Finch Therapeutics Group Inc.’s oral microbiome therapy for chronic Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), are technically good, but how good is the big question.
DUBLIN – Lassen Therapeutics Inc. is following the Enleofen Bio Pte Ltd. playbook by targeting the interleukin-11 receptor (IL-11R) as a novel approach to combating both fibrosis and cancer. It’s a move that paid off handsomely earlier this year for Singapore-based Enleofen, which entered a broad alliance in fibrosis with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, which could generate up to $1 billion in milestones for each product emanating from the partnership. San Diego-based Lassen is now laying claim to that space as well and has just emerged from stealth mode, having closed but not previously disclosed a $31 million series A round.
DUBLIN – Etherna Immunotherapies NV raised €34 million (US$38.2 million) in a series B funding round to progress its pipeline of mRNA-based vaccines for cancer and infectious disease.
Beta cell regeneration has been a holy grail for type 1 diabetes researchers for several decades. Despite some promising results in animal models, progress in patients has remained frustratingly elusive, however.
DUBLIN – Shares in Genmab A/S gained 5% during trading on Nasdaq June 10 on news of an oncology alliance with Abbvie Inc., in which it is banking $750 million up front and up to $3.15 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones for up to seven next-generation antibody-based therapeutics.
DUBLIN – Lycia Therapeutics Inc. raised $50 million in series A funding from founding investor Versant Ventures to take forward yet another novel concept in targeted protein degradation. The new company, which will be headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, is building on the work of Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, who has invented bifunctional structures called Lytacs – lysosomal targeting chimeras – which target extracellular or circulating proteins for internalization and lysosomal degradation by tethering them to lysosome targeting receptors at the cell surface.
DUBLIN – Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. is on track to secure its third FDA approval in successive years, as its siRNA drug, lumasiran, hit all its marks in a phase III trial in patients with primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1). The drug is already undergoing regulatory review and has a Dec. 3 PDUFA action date. It is undergoing accelerated assessment in Europe as well.
DUBLIN – Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Biotech arm is on the brink of a historic first vaccine approval, having secured a positive vote May 29 from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for its prime-boost Ebola virus vaccine combo, Zabdeno (Ad26.Zebov) plus MVABEA (MVA-BN-Filo).
