Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s surprise victory in the pivotal, second part of the phase II study called Moxie with Nrf2 activator omaveloxolone in patients with Friedreich's ataxia (FA) energized Wall Street and sharpened appetites for data due shortly with another candidate in the class, bardoxolone methyl, in the works for Alport syndrome (AS).

With phase III trial enrollment underway and expected to enroll about 120 patients, South San Francisco-based Principia Biopharma Inc. disclosed positive preliminary data from its phase II open-label trial testing the oral Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor PRN-1008 against pemphigus vulgaris (PV).

CEO Mark McKenna told BioWorld MedTech that San Diego-based Prometheus Biosciences Inc. has "cracked the code" in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – progress underscored by the firm's deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, which brings an undisclosed up-front payment and as much as $420 million more if development, regulatory and commercial milestones are reached in three programs.

Days after going public, Viela Bio Inc. nailed down a deal with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. to develop and commercialize Viela's humanized anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody, inebilizumab, in nine Asia regions for the rare disease called neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), as well as other potential future indications.

CEO Mark McKenna told BioWorld Asia that San Diego-based Prometheus Biosciences Inc. has "cracked the code" in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – progress underscored by the firm's deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, which brings an undisclosed up-front payment and as much as $420 million more if development, regulatory and commercial milestones are reached in three programs.

Something of a duel may be shaping up between Menlo Park, Calif.-based Adverum Biotechnologies Inc. with ADVM-022, the phase I gene therapy candidate for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Regenxbio Inc., of Rockville, Md., with a similar candidate.

Investors sorting through NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc.'s interim results from the fourth and final cohort of the adaptive phase II trial with aldafermin in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) may have felt let down when comparing the data to previous cohorts' outcomes. Shares of the South San Francisco-based firm (NASDAQ:NGM) closed Monday at $10.78, having sunk $2.77 or 20.4%.

CEO Mark McKenna told BioWorld that San Diego-based Prometheus Biosciences Inc. has "cracked the code" in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – progress underscored by the firm's deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, which brings an undisclosed up-front payment and as much as $420 million more if development, regulatory and commercial milestones are reached in three programs.

Tenaya Therapeutics Inc. CEO Faraz Ali told BioWorld that the company, which raised $92 million in a series B round, has programs from three cardiac platforms "stacked on top of each other" and wants to enter the clinic by the end of 2021 "with at least one of the multiple projects we're advancing." The South San Francisco-based firm wanted not to "let resources be the barrier" as to which goes first, he said. "We wanted the science to dictate that."

Elicio Therapeutics Inc. CEO Robert Connelly acknowledged "a general malaise about cancer vaccines," but described the strategy of his firm to BioWorld as "very different. None of these other approaches [has] delivered the goods to the lymph nodes, where the immune response is orchestrated."