KSQ Therapeutics Inc.’s chief scientific officer, Frank Stegmeier, said that the CRISPRomics technology that drew Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to the table allows, “for the first time, genome-scale functional screening [in vivo as well as in vitro] across multiple disease settings. It really takes the guessing game out of your drug target selection.” Working with “an encyclopedia of gene function,” he said, KSQ aims to identify prospects that can have monotherapy activity in PD-1-refractory solid tumors. Read More
Evoq Therapeutics LLC, a Michigan-based company developing a new technology for treating autoimmune disease, has signed a new license and collaboration agreement giving Amgen Inc. exclusive rights to selected programs in the area, undisclosed in number and indication. Valued at more than $240 million in up-front and milestone payments, the deal also includes potential royalties on sales of resulting therapies, Evoq said. Read More
Dublin – IO Biotech ApS raised €127 million (US$154.7 million) in a series B round to fund a potentially pivotal trial of its combination of cancer vaccines in first-line metastatic melanoma. The Copenhagen, Denmark-based company is one of a number of firms fueling a mini-resurgence in immuno-oncology in the early weeks of the new year, as new data and new insights are prompting additional investments in an area that some had thought was already oversubscribed. Read More
LONDON – Merck & Co. Inc. has become the latest pharma company to in-license a SHP2 small-molecule program, as the rush to find companion pieces for KRAS oncogene inhibitors heats up. Read More
CAJICA, Colombia – Authorities in Brazil released new efficacy data for Sinovac Biotech Ltd.'s COVID-19 vaccine Coronavac that surprised on the downside, suggesting the vaccine could be much less effective than initially indicated for preventing symptomatic infections. Read More
Newly launched Inzen Therapeutics Inc. is wrestling with cell loss and what information those cells impart as they die. The premise, that cells leave a legacy to living cells, is at the heart of the company as it works to find and develop therapies based on its Thanokine Biology, which the company said could be used for preventing and treating cancer, fibrotic disorders, immune-inflammatory disorders, metabolic disorders and degenerative diseases. Read More
As expected, pharmacy benefit managers are challenging a final rule that would end Medicare’s antitrust safe harbor for the rebates drug companies pay to the PBMs for formulary placement. Read More
BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: New causal gene for chronic kidney disease; New classification scheme for glioblastomas. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Adastra, Arcutis, Celltrion, Cytokinetics, Fosun, Gensight, Jounce, Kintara, Leo, Philogen, Regeneron, Rockwell, Sanofi, Sorrento, Synairgen. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Gracell, Harpoon, Hoth, Incyte, Inhibrx, Innovent, Leading, Marinus, Morphosys, Qilu, Sesen, Timber, Travere. Read More
