Another PD-1 antibody is about to hit the U.S. market, following the FDA’s accelerated approval of dostarlimab (TSR-042) from partners Anaptysbio Inc. and Glaxosmithkline plc. But dostarlimab, branded Jemperli, will be only one of two PD-1 drugs indicated for endometrial cancer, going up against Merck & Co. Inc.’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab). Read More
After cutting a deal worth up to $1.1 billion with Crispr Therapeutics AG, it took Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. only two days to come up with another collaboration that could top the $1 billion mark, this time with Obsidian Therapeutics Inc. Read More
As of 2020, the NIH had identified 507 grant recipients who potentially had undisclosed conflicts of interest, with many of those conflicts involving affiliations with foreign governments that may expect the scientists to share or steal NIH-funded research. Read More
Advances lately in the genome-editing space include Beam Therapeutics Inc. publication in The CRISPR Journal details of its work with inlaid base editors, which the firm is applying in the BEAM-102 program for sickle cell disease. IBEs’ predictable, shifted editing window lets researchers go after disease-causing mutations that canonical base editors cannot reach, Beam said, and do the job with high efficiency and few off-target effects on the genome. The hottest news due in the near-term future from the sector will spill from Intellia Therapeutics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., which is due to roll out first-in-human data with a systemic CRISPR-based genome editing therapy, NTLA-2001, in hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis. Read More
DUBLIN – Isotopen Technologien München (ITM) AG raised €90 million (US$108 million) in debt financing to complete phase III development of its lead radiopharmaceutical, solucin, in gastroenteropancreatic-neuroendocrine tumors and to take forward several more preclinical pipeline projects. Read More
DUBLIN – Anavo Therapeutics BV raised €20 million (US$24 million) in seed financing to fund the build-out of a platform that aims to drug the human phosphatome, or the ensemble of phosphatase enzymes that plays a crucial role in maintaining cells’ phosphorylation balance by removing phosphate groups from their target substrates. Read More
The enzyme proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) plays a major role in the regulation of blood LDL cholesterol levels. Now, new research shows that targeting PCSK9 may also potentiate checkpoint blockade.
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Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abbvie, Amarin, Henlius, Saniona, Ultragenyx. Read More
