The obesity market is hot with Novo Nordisk A/S generating $6.3 billion in sales from its semaglutide-containing drugs, Ozempic, Saxenda, Rybelsus and Wegovy, in the first quarter of 2024 and Eli Lilly and Co. bringing in $2.3 billion for its tirzepatide-containing drugs, Zepbound and Mounjaro, in the same quarter. It appears unlikely the market will be a two-horse race for much longer though.
Exsilio Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode on June 25, 2024, with $82 million from a series A financing that was co-led by Novartis Venture Fund and Delos Capital. The company plans to use naturally occurring, mobile genetic elements to integrate therapeutic genes at a defined location in the genome, making it safer than random integration, which can cause tumor formation.
Marea Therapeutics came out of stealth mode on June 18, after raising a combined $190 million through its series A and B financings. The series A round was led by Third Rock Ventures, and the series B round was led by Sofinnova Investments and co-led by Forbion, Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund and Venbio.
With its hands full developing QRL-101 and QRL-201, both in clinical trials for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with plans to expand into other neurodegenerative diseases such as frontotemporal dementia, Quralis Corp. has decided to out-license its preclinical ALS and FTD drug, QRL-204.
Altrubio Inc. secured up to $225 million in an oversubscribed series B financing round, led by BVF Partners LP. The full amount is dependent on Altrubio meeting certain undisclosed milestones. New investors RA Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management and Soleus Capital, and existing investors Amoon Fund and Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing, as well as other new and existing investors, also participated in the financing round.
With valuations heading higher, pharmaceutical companies are looking to make deals. “The M&A environment has kind of woken up a little bit,” Jay Stamatis, vice president and head of business development and acquisitions at Abbvie Inc., told the audience at Biocom California’s Global Life Science Partnering & Investor Conference.
Venture capitalists (VCs) on three different panels at Biocom California’s Global Life Science Partnering & Investor Conference gave advice to startups on a range of topics from what they’re looking for before investing to what startups should be doing to find pharma partners.
Biocom California’s Global Life Science Partnering & Investor Conference kicked off with a panel discussion focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery. While there’s been a lot of hype over how AI and machine learning have the potential to help companies speed up drug development, panelists hypothesized the largest opportunities are in developing new capabilities, potentially increasing the success rate going from discovery to regulatory approval.
Following up on a 2021 partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Bridgene Biosciences Inc. has signed up a second international drug company, Galapagos NV, to use its chemoproteomic platform, IMTAC (Isobaric Mass Tagged Affinity Characterization), to discover small-molecule drug candidates.
Multiple studies at the 65th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting 2023 have the potential to change the treatment paradigm for first-line treatment of multiple myeloma.
