Voyager Therapeutics Inc. is getting $30 million up front in a potential $630 million gene therapy deal with Pfizer Inc., the company’s first such agreement since a strategic refocusing effort earlier this year and a much-needed endorsement of a next-generation AAV capsid platform that has shown promising though early stage data. Read More
Privately held Retrotope Inc., the only company currently in the clinic studying the ultra-rare and fatal neurological disorder infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, has new data it hopes to present to the FDA early next year. Read More
Exscientia plc has raised $510.4 million in an upsized Nasdaq IPO and private funding round as it pushes forward with its artificial intelligence-based drug discovery mission. The Oxford, U.K.-based company aims to out-license some of its candidates to other companies, while saving others for its own pipeline. Read More
The start of a phase Ib/II trial with nanatinostat by Viracta Therapeutics Inc. has brought new attention to the burgeoning field of synthetic lethality, where a number of players are piquing the interest of Wall Street. Read More
The America Invents Act (AIA) is barely 10 years old, but a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators have proposed patent reform legislation that would amplify the use of the inter partes review (IPR) process to challenge an existing patent. There are several critical features of the new legislation, but Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the legislation would relieve the problem of poor-quality drug patents that “drive up the costs of prescription drugs.” Read More
Brii Biosciences Ltd. shared interim data from a phase III trial of its neutralizing monoclonal antibody (mAb) combination therapy for SARS-CoV-2, BRII-196 and BRII-198, that showed a 78% reduction in the risk of hospitalization or death in patients receiving single dose of the cocktail. Read More
Even though the U.S. already has a National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators is adding its voice to that of nearly 200 national organizations and experts in calling for more. Read More
Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH is the latest drug company to come into the crosshairs of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration over its restrictions on giving 340B drug discounts to contract pharmacies. Read More
The U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) joined the JAK inhibitor pile-on Oct. 6 with new measures to reduce the risk of major heart problems and malignancies in people taking Pfizer Inc.’s Xeljanz (tofacitinib). Read More
New hires and promotions in the biopharma industry, including: Affinia, Atyr, Clairvoyant, Codagenix, Heat, Kezar, Kiromic, Pieris, Rafael, Step. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Aim, Apexigen, Cassava, Covicept, Dialectic, Elicio, Entera, Legacy, Panther, Pharmather, Precirix, Takeda, Vaxart. Read More
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Abbvie, Astrazeneca, Eurobio, Fortress, Gemini, Landos, Lumen, Mosaic, Q-State, Strongbridge, Surrozen, Xeris. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: 4D Molecular, Acer, Cocrystal, Intellia, Lexicon, Pfizer, Relief, Rheacell, RDIF, Tenax. Read More
