DUBLIN – Scottish startup Adorx Therapeutics Ltd. is the latest contender to tackle the knotty problem of immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment through adenosine receptor inhibition. The Edinburgh-based firm raised $10 million to take forward an adenosine receptor A2A antagonist and a dual blocker of the A2A and A2B receptors.

DUBLIN – Sanofi SA and Evotec AG formally completed their previously disclosed deal, under which the latter firm will take on a raft of early stage anti-infective programs from the big pharma firm. Hamburg-based Evotec is getting $60 million up front plus a commitment for continued funding from Paris-based Sanofi, which will retain option rights on each of the programs. Responsibility for a Sanofi research unit in Lyon, which employs 100 scientists, will transfer to the German firm, more than doubling its footprint in anti-infectives research. 

DUBLIN – Calliditas Therapeutics AB is raising SEK650 million (US$74 million) in an IPO on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, which it priced Friday at SEK45 per share. An overallotment option, if exercised, would push the gross to SEK747 million. Commitments from current shareholders cover about half of the fundraising target. The book-building process kicks off today, and the shares are expected to start trading – under the stock symbol CALTX – on June 29.

DUBLIN – Syncona Ltd., the listed London-based biotech investment firm, is doubling down on gene therapy by investing $35 million in two new ventures, Swanbio Therapeutics Ltd., a Boston-based startup focused on central nervous system conditions, and Orbit Biomedical Ltd., a London-based firm developing a cannula device to enhance surgical delivery of gene therapy vectors to the back of the eye.

DUBLIN – The drug development graveyard that is Alzheimer's disease (AD) has claimed another victim, as Astrazeneca plc and Eli Lilly & Co. halted development of the beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor lanabecestat (AZD-3293; LY-3314814), after an independent data monitoring committee concluded that two phase III trials of the drug were unlikely to meet their primary endpoints.

DUBLIN – Idorsia Ltd. pressed the go button on its second pivotal program inside a month. The company has started enrolling patients in phase III trials of nemorexant (ACT-541468), a dual orexin receptor antagonist, for treating adult and elderly (ages 65 and older) patients with insomnia.

DUBLIN – A badly bruised Axovant Sciences Ltd. aims to rebuild its pipeline – and its credibility – through a series of deals based on what newly installed CEO Pavan Cheruvu described Wednesday as "a foundation of transformative science." 

DUBLIN – Decision time is looming for Sterna Biologicals GmbH & Co. KG on the development trajectory of its first-in-class GATA-3 inhibition program, which has delivered promising, if preliminary, data in ulcerative colitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

DUBLIN – The curious gap in understanding between the FDA and the EMA on which drugs work in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and which drugs don't widened last week, as the EMA's Committee on Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) refused to recommend Exondys (eteplirsen) for approval in Europe while granting a label extension to Translarna (ataluren).