According to venture capitalists on three different panels at Biocom California’s Global Life Science Partnering & Investor Conference, there’s still money available for newcos looking to get started. But the pitch they’re going to have to make to VCs is a little different than what would have worked a few years ago.
During two different panels at Biocom California’s Global Life Science Partnering & Investor Conference, executives from a variety of pharmaceutical companies laid out their wants and needs in the current market environment. Large drug companies have relied on biotech companies to build out their pipelines for many years, but the level of outside inventions has been increasing over the last few years.
Performing experiments and potentially manufacturing products in space offers some unique advantages in a near-zero gravity environment. Space changes buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure and convective heat flow. Researchers are studying how those changes affect cells, but also looking to take advantage of the changes to create products in manufacturing processes that wouldn’t be possible on earth.
Performing experiments and potentially manufacturing products in space offers some unique advantages in a near-zero gravity environment. Space changes buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure and convective heat flow. Researchers are studying how those changes affect cells, but also looking to take advantage of the changes to create products in manufacturing processes that wouldn’t be possible on earth.
Eisai Co. Ltd. and Biogen Inc. presented the full data set for the Clarity Alzheimer’s disease trial of lecanemab at the 2022 Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease, which was simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The data supported the top-line results released in September 2022.
Eisai Co. Ltd. and Biogen Inc. presented the full data set for the Clarity Alzheimer’s disease trial of lecanemab at the 2022 Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease, which was simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The data supported the top-line results released in September 2022.
Beta-site APP-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) inhibitors have a long history of failure in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical development of verubecestat, elenbecestat, lanabecestat, umibecestat, atabecestat and LY-3202626 were all discontinued. The drugs largely showed that inhibiting BACE1 reduced amyloid beta (AB) in both cerebrospinal fluid and plasma, reduced AB plaques on PET scans and reduced phosphorylated tau. Unfortunately, patients had early cognitive worsening, and there were signs of lowering of brain volume and increases in psychiatric adverse events.
During a presentation at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2022, researchers from the Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) Initiative consortium presented data from a study following nearly 1,300 patients with FTD caused by a genetic mutation, their presymptomatic family members who have the inherited mutation and unaffected family members to serve as controls. Researchers have used data from the study, which has been enrolling patients for over 10 years, to develop biomarkers that can be used to assess progression of FTD in interventional clinical trials.
Pfizer Inc. reported on Aug. 30, 2021, that its JAK inhibitor, abrocitinib, beat Dupixent (dupilumab, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc./Sanofi SA) in a head-to-head study of patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis. In the JADE DARE study, a higher percentage of patients taking abrocitinib had a 4-point improvement in the severity of Peak Pruritus Numerical Rating Scale (PP-NRS4) from baseline to week two compared to Dupixent.
Graybug Vision Inc. reported results from the phase IIb Altissimo study testing GB-102 as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that didn't live up to expectations set by the phase I/IIa Adagio study.
