HONG KONG – For the past several years, biopharma firms around the globe have been urged to develop a strategy for moving into China, and with good reason. China's pharmaceutical market value is expected to grow from $123 billion in 2017 to $160 billion by 2022, according to management consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting. Read More
DUBLIN – Aprea Therapeutics AB took in SEK512 million (US$56.4 million) in a series C round to continue development of its first-in-class cancer drug, APR-246, which is currently undergoing clinical trials in a swathe of cancer indications, all of which involve mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor. Read More
Australian radiopharma company Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. announced it is acquiring its partner, Belgium-based Advanced Nuclear Medicine Ingredients (Anmi) SA, for roughly A$8.1 million (US$5.9 million) in cash and Telix shares. The move accelerates commercialization of Telix's prostate cancer diagnostic kit, Illumet, in the U.S. and Europe. Read More
Redx Pharma plc, of Cheshire, U.K., reported that its porcupine enzyme inhibitor and new lead candidate, RX-C006, was able to suppress lung fibrosis, in vivo in a preclinical model. The drug suppressed the release of Wnt-5a from human lung fibroblasts at nanomolar concentrations and reduced fibroblast activation. Redx is developing it for the potential oral treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Read More
Igem Therapeutics Ltd., of London, secured an additional £3 million (US$3.8 million) to close its series A round at £5 million. Two new investors, Alsa Holdings and UCL Technology Fund, have joined initial investor Epidarex Capital in the second close. The funding will enable the company to further develop its portfolio of immunoglobulin E antibody candidates against a variety of cancers, it said. Read More
Researchers from the Swiss University of Zurich reported that targeting granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) could separate desired from undesired immune responses after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Read More
As participants descended on San Diego for the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, Fate Therapeutics Inc. prefaced its presentations with the disclosure that the FDA authorized its IND for FT-500, a universal, off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell product candidate derived from a clonal master induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line. FT-500 is expected to be the first iPSC-derived cell product to move into the clinic in the U.S., and prospects for manufacturing from a single master pluripotent cell line "could revolutionize cell therapy," wrote Piper Jaffray's Edward Tenthoff in a hot comment. Read More
With dosing complete in its phase II trial testing Ra Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s RA-101495 in generalized myasthenia gravis (MG) and date likely to roll out near the end of this year, the world already has begun weighing odds of the compound in a space where the likes of Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Argenx SE are formidable players. Read More
HONG KONG – China has shut down the work of the scientist who claimed to have facilitated the birth of the world's first babies with edited genes. Read More
