After two years of record venture capital financing, which peaked during the first quarter of 2021 with a whopping $38.27 billion raised, investments in biopharma have started to drop off, and industry watchers are expecting a slower deal pace ahead. The same is expected for the IPO market, which saw a record 134 companies go public in 2021. Those trends, combined with big pharma’s hefty cash balances, could mean an M&A surge in 2022, though the availability of special purpose acquisition companies could continue to offer private firms an attractive alternative to a buyout. Read More
LONDON – Curve Therapeutics Ltd. has gone straight from £4.5 million (US$6.1 million) in startup funding to signing a $1.7 billion drug discovery agreement with Merck & Co. Inc. The deal will see Curve apply its mammalian cell discovery technology to five oncology and neuroscience targets nominated by Merck. Read More
Third Harmonic Bio Inc. CEO Natalie Holles said the company’s $105 million in series B money will push THB-001 – a first-in-class, highly selective, oral inhibitor of wild-type KIT – “well past the first proof-of-concept study in inducible urticaria [hives].” Read More
The selection of Robert Califf to run the U.S. FDA might seem like a safe move on the part of the White House, but some believe his prior experience at the FDA does not necessarily suggest an acceptance of the regulatory status quo. Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, told BioWorld that while Califf is “not a flashy pick,” Califf possesses a very keen understanding of the need to modernize the FDA’s practice of regulatory science, which should be a welcome bit of news for makers of drugs and devices. Read More
Barely more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, there are five approved vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 available in the U.S. Forty years into the HIV pandemic, there are none. That contrast was repeatedly made by speakers at the 2022 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). Read More
A phase III study of Sage Therapeutics Inc.’s zuranolone in major depressive disorder hit not only its primary endpoint but also its key secondary endpoint. Despite that, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company’s share value (NASDAQ:SAGE) closed 17.4% lower Feb. 16, at $35.91 each. Read More
Star Therapeutics Inc. emerged from stealth mode to tell the world about its approach to drug discovery and development in rare diseases, and to spin out Electra Therapeutics Inc., the first in a projected family of companies. Read More
LONDON – In the largest-ever series A for a Spanish biotech, Splicebio S.L. has raised €50 million (US$56.9 million) to apply its protein splicing technology to the delivery of large genes that do not fit into existing vectors. The company claims its approach will overcome the capacity constraints of adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs), by splitting genes into parcels and reconstituting the proteins they express in vivo. Read More
Over the past few years, China has been quick to make promises to improve its regulatory and patent schemes for biopharmaceuticals and medical devices in keeping with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, but it’s been slow to fulfill those promises – at least in the eyes of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Read More
With the study of long COVID-19 continuing to evolve, the BioWorld team is taking a closer look at the condition – a complex syndrome affecting more than 100 million people globally –
and what's being done about it. In this episode, BioWorld Senior Science Editor Anette Breindl and Staff Writer Lee Landenberger, fresh off writing a pair of detailed stories about these issues, join us to talk about how consensus around what long COVID is has emerged.
New and updated preclinical and clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the ASCO Genitourinary
Cancers Symposium, including: Arvinas, Astellas, Astrazeneca, Aura. Aveo, Bioxcel, Janssen, Merck, Mustang, Propella, Seagen. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Affamed, Ambrx, Citius, Larimar, Legend, Neurocentria, Okyo, Pfizer. Read More
