A new understanding of how the almost 100-year-old ketogenic diet works to reduce seizures is guiding Bloom Science Inc. in its twin-pronged approach, which involves developing a medical food for epilepsy as well as an oral drug for orphan indications within the category.

The phrase "game changer" in the context of prostate cancer seems like a bold claim, but at least one analyst sees that degree of potential for one of Endocyte Inc.'s pipeline candidates. But first, consider the West Lafayette, Ind.-based firm's chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) effort, which drew attention at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting last month in Chicago.

Astrazeneca plc's long-time-coming approval of Lokelma (sodium zirconium cyclosilicate) oral suspension for adults with hyperkalemia puts another weapon in the hands of doctors, and there's more coming down the pike, albeit far off.

As Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. marches ahead with the phase III trial testing what could become the first approved lupus nephritis (LN) therapy, company backers are watching with interest another, lesser known indication where the cyclosporine analogue voclosporin might also work: focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS), a glomerular disease that can cause nephrotic syndrome. A phase II experiment is slated to start next month. Both conditions involve high amounts of protein in the urine, or proteinuria.

Amgen Inc. having scored the first of four expected approvals in the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor class with Aimovig (erenumab) for preventing migraine, Wall Street set about handicapping odds for the others in a large market.

Onconano Medicine Inc.'s $11.7 million in series A money should let the company finish phase I trials with its imaging agent and bring a therapeutic candidate to IND-enabling studies, CEO Ravi Srinivasan told BioWorld, as the company works with a "phenomenon [that] has not been exploited so far, even though it's been well-known and well-established in the cancer field."

With the countdown continuing to the Aug. 13 PDUFA date for Amicus Therapeutics Inc.'s migalastat in Fabry disease, Idorsia Ltd. has enrolled its first patient in a phase III registration study investigating the oral monotherapy lucerastat in that indication as well.

Company watchers differed over the half-empty, half-full glass of a $125 million financing agreement signed by La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co. (LJP) with Healthcare Royalty Partners (HCR) for Giapreza (angiotensin II), approved late last year and introduced to the market in March to increase blood pressure in adults with septic or other distributive shock.

Exelixis Inc.'s pivotal phase III blowup in colorectal cancer (CRC) may have little read-through to an ongoing melanoma study trying the same two drugs plus a third, and investors still have plenty to cheer about in the strong-selling renal carcinoma (RCC) therapy Cabometyx (cabozantinib).