HONG KONG – South Korea's oldest pharmaceutical company, Yuhan Co. Ltd., has out-licensed its lung cancer drug candidate, lazertinib, to Janssen Pharmaceutica NV in a deal that could involve up to $1.25 billion. Read More
Founder and Chief Technology Officer Nello Mainolfi told BioWorld that Kymera Therapeutics Inc. will disclose more in the months ahead about its lead compound, which sits at "the juncture between oncology and inflammation" and has been widely implicated in hematological cancers as well as other conditions. Meanwhile, the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm's $65 million series B round will push that prospect into the clinic and advance the pipeline of other candidates in cancer and immunology. So far, the Pegasus protein degradation platform has yielded preclinical data packages that support drug-like properties of Kymera's assets as well as differentiated pharmacology, Kymera said. Read More
Ribometrix Inc., a Durham, N.C.-based startup developing small-molecule drugs to modulate RNA activity, has raised $30 million in a series A financing. The round, led by Merck KGaA's M Ventures, will help the company advance its discovery platform and its internal pipeline, it said. Read More
HONG KONG – Undeterred by the underperformance of peers on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Suzhou's Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. filed for an IPO on Monday, becoming the 16th biotech company to seek a listing in Hong Kong under the new rules. Proceeds will be used to advance its core asset, CS-1001, aiming to be one of the first PD-L1 antibodies approved in China. Read More
The regenerative medicine sector that embraces gene and cell therapies continues to expand, particularly on the business and clinical development fronts. For example, a panel at the Neurosciences 2018 conference discussed just how rapidly the science is evolving and now beginning to take on harder-to-treat diseases, with gene therapies already in early stage development targeting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Batten disease. Read More
Gammadelta Therapeutics Ltd., of London, published data on gamma delta T-cell receptors in Nature Immunology. The receptors combine innate immunity with adaptive immunity using different regions of the receptor to differentiate healthy tissues from malignant cells. Read More
Eton Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Deer Park, Ill., said it priced its IPO of 3.6 million shares at $6 each. The underwriter in the offering has been granted a 45-day option to purchase an additional 540,000 shares at the IPO price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. Read More
In implementing another provision of the 21st Century Cures Act, the FDA is proposing a rule to exempt minimal-risk clinical investigations from informed consent requirements. Read More
