Barely a week after cutting a deal with Beigene Ltd. that included an up-front of $45 million cash, Shoreline Biosciences Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc.-owned Kite are collaborating to develop allogeneic cell therapies in a deal that could bring Shoreline more than $2.3 billion plus royalties. Read More
Just days after Hifibio Therapeutics Inc. closed a $75 million series D financing, Fibrogen Inc. has agreed to pay the antibody specialist $25 million up front and as much as $1.1 billion in milestones for rights to multiple preclinical programs for autoimmune diseases and cancer. The deal includes exclusive rights to Galectin-9 programs, in which the lead asset is expected to enter clinical development in the first quarter of 2023, and options to license all assets in Hifibio's CXCR5 and CCR8 programs. Read More
The U.S. government on June 17 announced plans for a multi-faceted $3.2 billion investment in the development and manufacture of new antivirals for preventing serious COVID-19 illness and death. Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 opinion dismissing a challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), removed a threat to the future of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) and the biosimilars pathway it created. Read More
LONDON – Curevac NV blamed the high number of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants after its COVID-19 vaccine failed to meet the primary endpoint in the interim analysis of the phase IIb/III trial. The vaccine, Cvncov, was only 47% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in the 40,000-person study. Read More
As debate continues to rage over the approval and pricing of the Alzheimer’s disease therapy Aduhelm (aducanumab), Biogen Inc. CEO Michel Vounatsos said his firm is “taking a position that is very responsible” but has “yet to be understood out there, and we have to do a better job.” Read More
Apollo Therapeutics LLC has completed a $145 million financing to develop its business model, based on building a portfolio of drugs through relationships with U.K. academic institutions. Read More
Lenz Therapeutics Inc. emerged from stealth mode with $47 million in series A financing to fund its mission to bring a drug therapy to bear on farsightedness, a problem that affects much of humanity, at one point or another. Read More
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have turned acetaminophen's toxicity into an asset, using it to select genetically modified hepatocytes in vivo. Read More
Artios Pharma Ltd. plans to begin the first clinical trials of a POLQ inhibitor class cancer drug later this year. There are a handful of companies working on POLQ inhibitor drugs, the name of the gene that encodes the enzyme DNA polymerase theta, but it looks like Artios has taken a head start following the publication of the supportive study in Nature Communications. Read More
Kahr Medical Ltd.’s $46.5 million financing provides runway to advance its multifunctional immunotherapeutic pipeline. The proceeds will be used to for clinical development of its lead asset, DSP-107, a first-in-class CD47x41BB targeting fusion protein to treat solid tumors and blood cancers through multiple phase I/II studies. Read More
Mcurex Therapeutics Inc. will work with Samyang Holdings Corp. to develop an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, advancing its bid to become the first Korean company to do so. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Aerie, Altimmune, Alvotech, Appili, Aprea, Argenx, Beigene, Biogen, Cyclo, Dicerna, Freeline, Gannex, Immunogenesis, Plus, Servier, Synlogic. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Aptinyx, Aqualung, Biocryst, Braeburn, Dicerna, Emmaus, Starton, United. Read More
