A move by Chimerix Inc. to strengthen its balance sheet by $225 million through the sale of smallpox drug Tembexa (brincidofovir) to biodefense specialist Emergent Biosolutions Inc. and extend its cash runway into 2026, should have proved a big win. Instead, shares (NASDAQ:CMRX) plunged nearly 61% May 16 on worry that Chimerix might be handing off a likely profitable program to fund a riskier oncology pipeline, a concern heightened by recent U.S. FDA feedback indicating lead oncology program ONC-201 might not be eligible for accelerated approval as previously expected. Read More
Valneva SE’s share price plummeted May 16 after the European Commission decided to terminate an advance purchase agreement for millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA-2001 because of delays in development. The company’s shares (Paris:VLA) fell more 19% to €9.65 (US$10.07) after it said it would reconsider its financial guidance for 2022. Read More
Apollo Global Management Inc. is taking a minority equity interest in European venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners, pledging to commit of up to €1 billion (US$1.04 billion) in managed capital to the latter’s investment coffers. Read More
Kriya Therapeutics Inc. has raised a $270 million series C financing to further develop its pipeline of gene therapies for treating cancer, ophthalmological problems, and rare and chronic diseases. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company has greatly expanded its employee roster, from about seven people to around 160 people, since its $80 million series A in May 2020 and scaled its learning-enabled tech and cloud computing abilities. It also further solidified its technology, manufacturing, R&D, and therapeutics units, something it plans to continue with the series C money. Read More
Age is the biggest risk factor for just about every common disease in high-income countries, which suggests that slowing down cellular aging would have massive effects on individual and public health. Delaying the average onset of Alzheimer’s disease by five years, for example, would roughly halve its prevalence. But in practice, there are no approved anti-aging medications. Read More
Astrazeneca plc has signed up for more of the heavy-duty structure-based drug discovery services Proteros Biostructures GmbH specializes in, inking an extension to their existing collaboration agreement. Read More
New hires and promotions in the biopharma industry, including: Avilar, Hemostemix, Hutchmed, Promontory, Reaction Biology, Revir, Seagen, Soricimed, Turning Point. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Affimend, Akston, Altrubio, Astex, C4, Dizal, Hua, Inhibrx, Xeris. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Checkpoint, Clearmind, Editas, Hansa, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Neurocrine, Polarityte, UCB, Yiling. Read More
