Arrakis Therapeutics Inc.’s CEO, Michael Gilman, knew his 3-year-old company had a partnering tiger by the tail just by the amount of interest from companies who wanted to partner. He sat back and waited until the right offer came along and went with Roche Holding AG. The result is a massive collaboration and license agreement that could stretch into the billions of dollars. “We very deliberately stayed out of partnering discussions for the first couple years,” Gilman told BioWorld. “It took a while to figure out how to do this. We wanted to understand what we had before selling off parts of it.” Read More
BEIJING – China, Yantai-based biologics maker Remegen Ltd. has raised about $100 million in a private round led by Lilly Asia Ventures and Lake Bleu Capital to advance its autoimmune, oncology and ophthalmology drug candidates, especially its NDA-stage RC-18 (telitacicept) for system lupus erythematosus (SLE). Read More
There will be lessons learned aplenty when the COVID-19 pandemic finally breaks, including how serological and molecular testing can be used to maximum effect to corral a future pandemic. Carmen Wiley, president of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry, told BioWorld that the existing instrument types are up to the job, but that surge capacity is needed, and that it is not clear how the cost of that capacity will be handled. Read More
Sage Therapeutics Inc.’s chief business officer, Michael Cloonan, said the firm is “not going to give details around the geographies and the number of sites” that will continue to use Zulresso (brexanolone) for postpartum depression (PPD) after the restructuring of the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm. Read More
Novavax Inc., one of the first biopharma companies to reveal its efforts to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in January, has identified a prefusion protein for testing in an Australian phase I trial, slated to start in mid-May. Read More
LONDON – An unseemly row has broken out at the heart of EU science, with Mauro Ferrari, head of the European Research Council (ERC), accusing the European Commission of failing to coordinate and fund R&D needed to combat COVID-19. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Addex, Aivita, Catalyst, Neuclone, Novotech, Obi, Trillium, Viriom. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Acceleron, Aeglea, Aeterna Zentaris, Algernon, Bellerophon, BMS, Nicox, Polaryx and Roche. Read More
