As it moves into phase II testing with the lead candidate from its hematologic pipeline, privately held Disc Medicine Inc. is also moving to the public markets via a reverse merger agreement with struggling biotech Gemini Therapeutics Inc. Concurrent with a $53.5 million financing from investors, the deal is expected to provide Disc with a cash runway into 2025.
DUBLIN – Silence Therapeutics plc has entered the Chinese market through a partnering deal with Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. that involves developing short interfering RNA (siRNA) drugs against three undisclosed targets.
Disc Medicine Inc. closed a $90 million series B round to move its two lead assets into clinical trials in patients next year. Bitopertin, an oral inhibitor of glycine transporter 1 (GlyT1), is entering a phase II trial in patients with erythropoietic porphyrias (EPPs), a set of rare genetic disorders caused by mutations that disrupt heme synthesis. Disc-0974, an antibody directed against hemojuvelin, will enter a phase II trial in myelofibrosis patients with transfusion-dependent anemia. The molecule, which Disc Medicine in-licensed from North Chicago-based Abbvie Inc., is currently undergoing a phase I trial in healthy volunteers.
Protagonist Therapeutics Inc. stock (NASDAQ:PTGX) nosedived 47% on Tuesday after the company released preliminary results from its phase II open-label study of PTG-300, an injectable hepcidin mimetic to treat patients with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia.
La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co. discontinued its study LJ401-BT01 due to lack of efficacy and will reassess further development of LJPC-401 (synthetic human hepcidin) based on recent mixed clinical results.