Highlighting 2021's clear trajectory toward record IPO territory, Oct. 8 brought upsized market debuts for both Pyxis Oncology Inc. and Cognition Therapeutics Inc., raising $168 million and $45.2 million, respectively.
Neumora Therapeutics Inc., a neuroscience startup aiming to launch precision medicines for brain diseases, said Oct. 7 it has raised more than $500 million, including a $100 million equity investment from Amgen Inc. and a series A financing led by Arch Venture Partners. The company launches with a portfolio of eight clinical, preclinical and discovery-stage programs from internal discovery efforts, the acquisitions of multiple private companies and a new license agreement with Amgen.
Xencor Inc. and Janssen Biotech Inc., already partners on the development of bispecific antibodies against CD28 for prostate cancer, have reached a second agreement licensing to Janssen exclusive development and commercialization rights to Xencor's phase I bispecific antibody, plamotamab, for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, both as a monotherapy and in combination regimens.
New data on the COVID-19 antibody therapy Ronapreve (casirivimab + imdevimab), already used to treat non-hospitalized patients in multiple countries, could potentially support expanding its use to certain recently hospitalized patients with the disease.
Expansion Therapeutics Inc., a company developing new drugs for severe RNA-mediated diseases based on the work of its scientific founder, Scripps Research chemistry professor Matthew Disney, has raised $80 million in a series B financing to identify and advance oral small-molecule candidates for the potential treatment of myotonic dystrophy type 1, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and tauopathies.
Just months after the controversial FDA approval of Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm (aducanumab), partners on that medicine, Eisai Co. Ltd. and Biogen Inc., are advancing a BLA for another possible AD therapy, lecanemab. Formerly known as BAN-2401, the Bioarctic AB-originated antibody is designed to neutralize and eliminate soluble, toxic amyloid beta for the treatment of early AD. The rolling submission, in pursuit of an accelerated approval, was primarily based on data from a phase IIb trial in people with early AD and confirmed amyloid pathology.
Preclinical neuroscience firm Delix Therapeutics Inc., a startup developing non-hallucinogenic analogues of psychedelics, has closed a $70 million series A financing. The new funds will help the Boston-based company advance two lead candidates through phase I trials, DLX-1 and DLX-7, with studies planned for starts in late 2022 or early 2023.
Paul Peter Tak means business. In one very active year, the entrepreneurial president and CEO of Candel Therapeutics Inc., an oncolytic viral immunotherapy company he said was long run as cost-efficient "semi-academic lab,” has hired on a new chief business officer and CFO, recruited a new research advisory board, and led the company to completion of a $79.1 million IPO. Now, ahead of a weekend presentation of data on one of the company's lead candidates for fast-growing brain tumors, shares (NASDAQ:CADL) that dipped post-IPO are again climbing as the company works to develop a slow-growing class of new medicines.
Autumn's arrival in the Northern Hemisphere on Sept. 22 swept in significant news of progress for the global fight against COVID-19. A protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Clover Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. and Dynavax Technologies Corp. appeared wholly effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization, sending Dynavax shares (NASDAQ:DVAX) climbing 26.5% to close at $18.79 on Sept. 22. In another study of Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Veklury (remdesivir), the drug significantly reduced hospitalization in high-risk patients with COVID-19. Meanwhile, governments and companies continued to expand efforts to supply new vaccines and therapeutics against the disease even as efforts continued far and wide to evaluate the efficacy of new and emerging candidates in both categories.
