Investors might not have been overly excited, but Genmab A/S executives enthused about the “complementarity” of its proposed acquisition of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Profoundbio Inc. for $1.8 billion in cash. The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2024, marks the biggest by far for the Copenhagen, Denmark-based biopharma and the latest transaction for the red hot ADC space. Read More

Less than two weeks after going public by way of the merger with Graphite Bio Inc., Lenz Therapeutics Inc. unveiled positive top-line data from its pair of phase III Clarity studies testing two formulations of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist aceclidine, LNZ-100 and LNZ-101, for presbyopia. Read More

Does the NIH have the ability to screen for U.S. security issues in its award of research grants? That question is at the heart of an April 2 letter the Republican leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent to the Government Accountability Office in which it asked the government watchdog to examine the extent to which the NIH “adequately safeguards research funds from national security concerns related to the Chinese military or over the unethical use of human beings in research studies, especially from entities of concern in China.” Read More

With a $128 million series A financing, Diagonal Therapeutics Inc. launched to develop its lead program using agonist antibodies for treating, among other indications, the rare disease hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. The antibodies are designed to activate a receptor complex in the TGF-β superfamily genetically impaired in patients with the bleeding disorder. Diagonal also is developing a treatment for the orphan disease pulmonary arterial hypertension. Read More

Ironically, the first person to be diagnosed with what is now Alzheimer’s disease was missing its major risk factor. When she first began showing symptoms of dementia in 1901, Auguste Deter was not particularly old. Despite Deter’s case, aging is the largest risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s, by a large margin. But “geroscience has not been translated into drugs for Alzheimer’s disease,” Howard Fillit, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation co-founder and chief scientific officer, told BioWorld. “We’re just starting to see that cross-fertilization now.” This first article of a three-part BioWorld series on Alzheimer’s disease looks at how a group of researchers, as well as some startups, are trying to approach Alzheimer’s via an aging lens. Read More

Addex Therapeutics has offloaded its portfolio of preclinical allosteric modulation drugs into Neurosterix, a new company that arrives on the scene with a $63 million series A round. Read More

The U.S. FDA accepted for review Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd.’s and Astrazeneca plc’s BLA for datopotamab deruxtecan to treat adults with unresectable or metastatic hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who have received prior systemic therapy for unresectable or metastatic disease. Read More

New hires and promotions in the biopharma industry, including: Acadia, Assertio, Insitro, Newamsterdam, Nxera, Oncoinvent, Prilenia, Q32, Ratio, Regcell, Tevogen, Upstream. Read More

Biopharmas raising money in public or private financings, including: Alterome, Betterlife, Cancervax, Comformation-X, Matinas, Mendus, Obsidian. Read More

Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Corbus, Corcept, Gritstone, Lygenesis, Kiromic, Ocugen, Petros, Qlaris, Priovant, Revive, Roivant, Sernova, Verve, Vogenx, Yoltech. Read More

Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Adaptive, Amarin, Arca, Ascletis, Astellas, Cytomx, Dsm-Fimerich,Kinnate, Kintara, Ligand, Oruka, Oz Medicann, Pelthos, Pierre Fabre, Teva, Tuhura, Urogen, VBI Vaccines, Xoma. Read More

Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Astrazeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, D&D, Hutchmed, Innovent, Jazz, Myrtelle, Rocket, Verve. Read More