Tscan Therapeutics Inc.’s Wall Street-pleasing deal with Amgen Inc. in Crohn’s disease (CD) could expand into ulcerative colitis, but meanwhile is bringing $30 million up front with the potential for more than $500 million in preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, plus tiered single-digit royalties. Shares of Waltham, Mass.-based Tscan (NASDAQ:TCRX) closed May 9 at $3.40, up $1.25, or 58%, as the world learned of the multiyear collaboration with Amgen, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., that will use Tscan’s target discovery platform, Targetscan, to identify the antigens recognized by T cells in patients with CD. Read More
The U.S. government’s attempts to enforce its ownership of biopharma intellectual property got a setback May 9 when a six-member federal jury in Delaware determined that Gilead Sciences Inc. did not infringe government patents claiming pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use of Gilead’s HIV drugs, Truvada and Descovy, both of which combine emtricitabine and tenofovir. Read More
Roche AG acquired global rights to Zion Pharma Ltd.’s lead program, ZN-A-1041, an orally administered selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is designed to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and can prevent and treat brain metastases in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients. Read More
By analyzing a cohort of adolescents that developed myocarditis or pericarditis after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, researchers from Yale University School of Medicine were able to pinpoint the underlying mechanism as an overly active innate immune response to the vaccine that led to broad activation of T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. Myocarditis “has been seen in other vaccine contexts, though is most common after viral infection,” Carrie Lucas told reporters at a press conference announcing the findings.
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Watchers of the Bruton’s kinase (BTK) inhibitor space may be casting renewed skepticism in that direction after Merck KGaA disclosed April 12 that the U.S. FDA placed a partial clinical hold on the sign-up of more patients in work testing evobrutinib in relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) – but BTK efforts in MS continue in various quarters. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Amgen, Cindome, Curevac, Ferring, Innovent, Inovio, Ironwood, Mallinckrodt, Omnix, Renibus, Seres, Vedanta. Read More
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Amgen, Appili, Bayer, Entera, Fibrogen, Fortis, Liminal, Telix. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Acasti, Ascletis, Astrazeneca, Chiesi, Genassist, Glaukos, Promis, Protalix, Rhythm, Specialised, Trevena, Vedanta. Read More
