While its mRNA COVID-19 vaccination effort gets the most attention these days, Moderna Inc. is also moving in other directions as the company will lead mRNA discovery programs drawn from its early stage pipeline in new collaborations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Italy’s Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA. These two deals highlight the “huge opportunity for mRNA beyond SARS-CoV-2 and vaccines,” Piper Sandler analysts wrote Sept. 16. Read More
Palleon Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO and founder Jim Broderick told BioWorld that the just-raised $100 million in series B money leaves the firm well positioned to push its lead oncology compound into the clinic next year, bolstered by a widely gathered team of experts – “almost a consortium” – in glycan mediation. Read More
DUBLIN – Finch Therapeutics Inc. closed a $90 million series D round to take its oral microbiome therapy, CP-101, into late-stage clinical development and registration in chronic Clostridioides difficile infection and to move two additional programs, for chronic hepatitis B virus infection and autistic spectrum disorder, into the clinic. Read More
Synthekine Inc., a California startup developing new medicines for cancer and autoimmune disorders, has closed an $82 million series A financing. The funds will help the company move its two lead programs into the clinic, expand its discovery pipeline and hone its cytokine engineering platforms. Read More
LONDON – Lava Therapeutics BV has raised $83 million in a series C round, enabling it to begin clinical trials of its bispecific gamma-delta T-cell engager technology, in both a hematologic and a solid tumor indication in 2021. Read More
Spurred by reports of biopharma executives exercising stock options in conjunction with announcements about COVID-19 vaccine developments and government contracts, U.S. lawmakers want to close the loopholes that make such actions legal. Read More
HONG KONG – Chinese biotech companies, long in-licensors of innovative biopharma assets for the region, have started to reverse the flow by out-licensing domestically generated candidates to global players. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Australian public health laboratories are collaborating to sequence the virus genomes of all positive COVID-19 tests in Australia to track the virus using genomics across the country. The Communicable Disease Genomics Network (CDGN) and Illumina Inc. will track COVID-19 by using next-generation genomic sequencing technology. Read More
New hires and promotions in the biopharma industry, including: Brii, Cormedix, Cue, Dinaqor, Highland, Inflarx, Neurogene, Sumitomo Dainippon, Vectivbio, Venatorx, Veralox. Read More
New and updated preclinical and clinical data to be presented by biopharma firms at the
European Society for Medical Oncology Virtual Congress 2020, including: ADC, Amunix, Bayer, Blueprint, BMS, Cardiff Oncology, Clovis, Corvus, Cullinan Pearl, Deciphera, Genentech, Genocea, Halozyme, Immunicum, Immunogen, Mersana, Noxxon, Oryzon, Roche, VBI. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Apnimed, Epygenix, Intensity, Mimedx, Novartis, Octapharma, Principia, Rhovac, Rigel, Virometix. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Allovir, Celltrion, Chemocentryx, Chi-Med, Roche, Sorrento, Zynerba. Read More
