Once again, Eli Lilly and Co. has signed a billion-dollar deal, this time with Boston-based Ascidian Therapeutics Inc., a company that is barely four years old and one that is focused on treating human diseases by rewriting RNA. “Our technology, we call it RNA exon editing,” said Ascidian Chief Scientific Officer Robert Bell. “It edits RNA, not DNA … but it does so at the kilobase scale.” Read More
Cytomx Therapeutics Inc. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., which inked a bispecifics-focused collaboration worth up to $2 billion in 2022, agreed to broaden their efforts in an expanded deal that provides Cytomx with additional funding up front as it advances its promising colorectal cancer candidate, varsetatug masetecan (Varseta-M), and fills the gap left by the recently terminated agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc. Read More
Oppenheimer analyst Jay Olson trumpeted “a new era” in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) after Revolution Medicines Inc.’s data splash with daraxonrasib at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago – but he wasn’t talking about only that company. Combined with other recent updates in the space, the phase III data from Redwood City, Calif.-based Revolution is providing investors as well as patients with renewed hope in notoriously difficult-to-treat PDAC. Read More
Nearly a year after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy announced the U.S. was cutting off funding for Gavi, a global vaccine alliance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department is reengaging with the organization in light of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in central Africa. In testifying before a June 2 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Rubio said the State Department made the decision to reengage a few weeks earlier with Gavi. He provided no detail of what that engagement looks like. Read More
Mammogen Inc. raised $30 million in equity financing in a series A round to support the clinical advancement and commercialization of its RNA-powered molecular diagnostics platform. The company’s lead product is Gentru-breast, a blood-based assay designed to detect molecular signatures associated with breast cancer from a simple blood draw. Read More
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple loci associated with complex diseases, but these are mostly on regulatory genes in the non-coding part of the genome and it has proved difficult to identify the effector genes that they control. Now, researchers in the U.K. have shown how single cell sequencing at scale can be used to precisely link non-coding GWAS loci to specific protein coding genes and cell types. Read More
Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) represents a public health threat that can lead to serious problems, such as bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in children in up to 10%-15% of cases. Antibiotics that normally combat diarrhea are not recommended for STEC infections and patients are usually treated only for symptomatology. Now, French researchers from Eligo Bioscience SA and their collaborators have published a paper on a CRISPR-based antimicrobial approach, EB-003. Read More
New hires and promotions in the biopharma and med-tech industries, including: Airna, Altessa, Enyo, Evotec, Fundamental, Kazia, Minerva, Oncolytics Biotech, Prokidney, Rocket One, Spyglass, Tavo. Read More
Clinical updates for biopharma and med tech, including data readouts and publications: Abivax, Beyondspring, Candel, Celcuity, Cumberland, Disc, Evogene, Greywolf, Inmune, Lantern, Mendus, Praxis, Rezolute. Read More
Biopharma and med-tech happenings, including deals and partnerships, and other news in brief: Camurus, Eli Lilly, Luminopia, Mentice, Mindmaze, Neuropacs, Noctrix, Redhill, Resmed, Rohto, Siemens, SMi, Teva, Telix, United. Read More
Regulatory snapshots for biopharma and med tech, including global submissions and approvals, and other regulatory decisions and designations: Abbvie, Amgen, Foundation, Intelligent, Johnson, Merakris, Nxera, Pasithea, Roche, Santhera. Read More
