While glucocorticoids are used as first-line therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), these agents are associated with several adverse events, including accelerated bone loss and muscle atrophy. As a result, prolonged glucocorticoid treatment is one of the primary contributors to the high fracture rate in patients with DMD.
After Keros Therapeutics Inc.’s first-quarter earnings report, the Wall Street spotlight turned its beam toward additional data due soon from the phase II studies with KER-050, an ActRIIA-Fc fusion protein in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and myelofibrosis.
Keros Therapeutics Inc. announced preliminary results from a phase I trial of its engineered ligand trap KER-012 that gave its team confidence to proceed with larger studies in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and potentially some bone diseases. But company shares (NASDAQ:KROS) fell 16.6% to $38.50 May 18, following the announcement, perhaps over concerns about trial subjects that emerged in a company-hosted investor call.
The pandemic hasn't kept biotechs from going public. In fact, through the first five or so months of the year, the industry has raised more than $3.3 billion through IPOs, more capital than biotechs have raised during the first five months of any of the previous 20 years.
Against a backdrop of nearly 15 global biopharma IPOs on deck on a day when all major U.S. market indices fell, shares of cancer drug developer Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNTL) shot up 29% to $23.20 on April 3 after an upsized initial filing to sell 9.2 million shares at a top-of-range $18 each.
Keros Therapeutics Inc. CEO Jasbir Seehra told BioWorld that he plans to use at his new company lessons learned as co-founder of Acceleron Pharma Inc., where work with receptors in the TGF-beta superfamily “taught me the potential of the biology and those molecules, but also the limitations” with regard to safety that need to be surmounted.