Despite government efforts to prop up biopharma and med-tech research toward creating women’s health products, companies must eventually reach out to the private markets to bring their inventions to the next stage of development. Anna Zornosa-Heymann, a women’s health investor, serves as a part-time contractor with the U.S. NIH’s SEED (Small business Education & Entrepreneurial Development) office, where she helps companies move from government to external funding. Government funds are “excellent to pay for research … but those funds don’t allow you to build a first-class team and to develop a sales apparatus,” she told BioWorld.
While women make up half the world’s population and own two out of every five businesses, there are substantial knowledge gaps about conditions affecting their health – mostly due to decades of research excluding women from clinical trials and investment decisions.
While women make up half the world’s population and own two out of every five businesses, there are substantial knowledge gaps about conditions affecting their health – mostly due to decades of research excluding women from clinical trials and investment decisions.
More than two years since emerging from stealth, Vesalius Therapeutics Inc. signed its first major pharma deal with GSK plc. Worth up to $650 million and possibly more if an option is exercised, the multitarget alliance aims to discover and develop novel treatments for Parkinson’s disease and another neurodegenerative indication.
More than two years since emerging from stealth, Vesalius Therapeutics Inc. signed its first major pharma deal with GSK plc. Worth up to $650 million and possibly more if an option is exercised, the multitarget alliance aims to discover and develop novel treatments for Parkinson’s disease and another neurodegenerative indication.
Nearly $3.8 billion was earned by Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly and Co. in the third quarter for their glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs to treat obesity. Novo’s GLP-1 drug, Wegovy (semaglutide), approved by the U.S. FDA in June 2021, had sales of DKK17.3 billion (US$2.5 billion), while Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide), which is a GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide dual agonist FDA-approved in November 2023, posted sales of $1.26 billion for the quarter.
Extending its cash runway into 2026, Sana Biotechnology Inc. is prioritizing certain autoimmune assets and punting an oncology program and a central nervous system diseases program to a potential licensing partner or spinout company.
Two days after Monte Rosa Therapeutics Inc. signed a molecular glue degrader deal with Novartis AG, two other companies, Biogen Inc. and Neomorph Inc., are moving forward in the same space in a partnership worth up to $1.45 billion. Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen and San Diego-based Neomorph will develop molecular glue degraders (MGDs) for priority targets in Alzheimer’s, rare neurological and immunological diseases, using Neomorph’s MGD platform to identify and validate novel small-molecule protein degraders.
Two days after Monte Rosa Therapeutics Inc. signed a molecular glue degrader deal with Novartis AG, two other companies, Biogen Inc. and Neomorph Inc., are moving forward in the same space in a partnership worth up to $1.45 billion. Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen and San Diego-based Neomorph will develop molecular glue degraders (MGDs) for priority targets in Alzheimer’s, rare neurological and immunological diseases, using Neomorph’s MGD platform to identify and validate novel small-molecule protein degraders.
While phase II results of Coya Therapeutics Inc.’s low-dose IL-2 drug, COYA-301, showed promise in Alzheimer’s disease patients when dosed every four weeks, it was the more frequent dosing of every two weeks that led to exhausted regulatory T cells and no benefits, driving down the company’s stock by nearly 28%.
