The U.S. FDA clearance Feb. 20 of East Windsor, N.J.-based Acrotech Biopharma Inc.’s PDE4 inhibitor Adquey (difamilast ointment 1%) for mild to moderate atopic dermatitis brought renewed focus on the mechanism, where other drugs are already approved and more are stocking developers’ pipelines across indications.
Generate Biomedicines Inc. proved that enthusiasm hasn’t waned for TSLP as a target by pricing an IPO selling 25 million shares at $16 each for proceeds of $400 million. Generate’s lead compound is phase III-stage TSLP-targeting antibody GB-0895 and the company’s assigned Nasdaq ticker is GENB. The offering is expected to close on March 2.
The psychedelic and psychedelic-like drug space made another stride as Ataibeckley Inc. disclosed positive top-line data from a double‑blind, placebo‑controlled, first-in-patient phase IIa study testing oral R-MDMA therapy EMP‑01 in adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD).
Almost three months to the day after Protara Therapeutics Inc. made known positive interim data from the phase II trial testing cell-based therapy TARA-002 in pediatric patients with macrocystic and mixed cystic lymphatic malformations (LMs), Palvella Therapeutics Inc. scored positive top-line results from the phase III Selva study evaluating Qtorin 3.9% rapamycin anhydrous gel for microcystic LMs.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign-imports tariff policies did not hold up well at the Supreme Court, which ruled unconstitutional his edicts under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The sharply worded 6-3 opinion was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Less than four months after company officials said they would explore options to find ways of maximizing shareholder value, Sensei Biotherapeutics Inc. disclosed the buyout of Faeth Therapeutics Inc. by way of a stock-for-stock deal – news that sent shares (NASDAQ:SNSE) to a closing price Feb. 18 of $26.25, up $17.12, or 187.5%.
Ocular Therapeutix Inc.’s wet age-macular degeneration candidate, Axpaxli, beat anti-VEGF therapy Eylea (aflibercept) from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in the phase III head-to-head trial called Sol-1, but not by enough of a margin for Wall Street. Shares of the firm (NASDAQ:OCUL) closed Feb. 17 at $6.99, down $1.89, or 21%, as investors mulled the top-line findings.
After two decades of work with Translarna (ataluren) for nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy, PTC Therapeutics Inc. withdrew its bid for approval of the compound upon hearing from the U.S. FDA. Regulators told Warren, N.J.-based PTC that the data package for Translarna is “unlikely to meet the agency's threshold of substantial evidence of effectiveness.”
Bridgebio Pharma Inc. kept the phase III wins coming, this time with positive top-line results from Propel 3, the global phase III pivotal study of oral infigratinib, designed to inhibit FGFR3 signaling in children with achondroplasia.
Upstream Bio Inc.’s favorable top-line results from the phase II Valiant trial testing verekitug in adults with severe asthma were not enough to charm Wall Street, and shares of the firm (NASDAQ:UPB) closed Feb. 11 at $14.69, down $13.12, or 47%.
