DUBLIN – Silence Therapeutics plc entered a wide-ranging siRNA-based drug discovery and development deal with Astrazeneca plc that has propelled it toward the front ranks of siRNA platform companies. It is banking an up-front payment of $60 million, another $20 million as an equity investment and up to $400 million in option fees and milestone payments per candidate drug, in an alliance that could entail up to five active programs within three years. Read More
At the beginning of this week, the digitally-delivered Bio-Europe Spring 2020 conference launched with 6,000 partnering meetings, 45 company presentations, more than 50 virtual exhibits and 12 panel discussions scheduled. Read More
Castle Creek Biosciences Inc. CEO John Maslowski told BioWorld the firm’s $75 million financing will propel phase III research with FCX-007 in recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), with top-line data due in the first quarter of 2021 – “a big inflection point” for the Exton, Pa.-based company, which plans a BLA filing for that year as well. Read More
Regenacy Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Waltham, Mass., closed on a $30 million series A financing designed to initiate a phase II proof-of-concept trial for ricolinostat, an oral, selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) 6 inhibitor, in diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Read More
Redpin Therapeutics Inc., of New York, plans to take its newly secured $15.5 million series A financing to continue developing its ion-channel based chemogenetics platform for addressing neural circuit dysfunctions such as epilepsy, neuropathic pain and Parkinson’s disease. Read More
HONG KONG – Singapore-based Proteona Pte. Ltd. has formed a couple of significant partnerships recently, including a Germany-Singapore partnership to develop a drug screening and discovery platform using single cell multi-omics analysis for patient-derived micro-tumors, and an international alliance to develop antibodies against coronaviruses. Read More
Following a public backlash to Monday’s news that the FDA had granted Gilead Sciences Inc. an orphan drug designation for remdesivir, an antiviral in development to treat COVID-19, the Foster City, Calif., company is taking the unprecedented step of rescinding its request for the designation. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Allakos, Avadel, Cassava, Diffusion, Eloxx, Immutep, Lundbeck, Mind Medicine, Onconova, Opko. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Daiichi, EMD, Exelixis, Gilead, Infinity, Intrabio, Sumitomo, Takeda, Valneva. Read More
