Boston
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Vertex’s CRISPR Gene Therapy Lands Another FDA Nod in a Rare Blood Disease
The FDA approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ gene therapy Casgevy for treating beta thalassemia, an inherited blood disease that leads to low levels of functioning hemoglobin. Last month, the one-time treatment won its first FDA nod for treating sickle cell disease.
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Roche Deal Aims to Get Molecular Glues to Stick to Elusive Cancer, Neuro Targets
Roche is paying $50 million up front to begin a drug R&D alliance with Monte Rosa Therapeutics, a biotech whose molecular glue technology could address targets previously deemed undruggable. It’s Roche’s second such deal in the past month.
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Liquid Biopsy Startup Precede Sets Out to Make Precision Medicine More Precise
Precede Biosciences’ liquid biopsy platform yields insight into the genes and pathways in diseased tissue. Based on Dana-Farber Cancer Institute research, the startup aims to support biopharma drug R&D as it also develops the technology for clinical care applications.
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Pharma, Artificial Intelligence, BioPharma
Novo Nordisk Turns to Flagship’s Valo Health for AI-Driven Cardio Drug R&D
Novo Nordisk is paying Valo Health $60 million up front to gain three preclinical cardiovascular disease programs. Milestone payments for those programs and others covered under the artificial intelligence drug discovery pact could reach up to $2.7 billion.
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Startup Magnet Biomedicine Attracts $50M to Expand Scope of Molecular Glue Drugs
Magnet Biomedicine builds on decades of molecular glue research from its scientific co-founder, Harvard University Professor Stuart Schreiber. The startup is developing drugs that take these glues beyond the biotech industry’s current focus on targeted protein degradation.
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Twice Rejected Diabetes Drug/Device Product Gets New Chance at Startup i2o
Intarcia Therapeutics’ GLP-1 agonist product candidate for type 2 diabetes now belongs to i2o Therapeutics, which will make the treatment’s case for approval at an upcoming FDA advisory committee meeting. The startup’s $46 million Series A financing is one of several recently announced funding rounds.
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Devices & Diagnostics, BioPharma
Rigorous Data Are Key to Convince Payers, Investors in the World of Digital Therapeutics
Pear Therapeutics was once regarded as a digital therapeutics pioneer, but its spiral into bankruptcy has the industry searching for the best path forward. While some favor going direct to consumers, others say the solution is in generating more robust clinical trial data to persuade hesitant payers.
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Eli Lilly Puts Up $60M for In Vivo Gene-Editing Med for Cardiovascular Disease
Eli Lilly’s partnership with Verve Therapeutics covers the development of a preclinical therapy addressing a protein associated with cardiovascular disease risk. The in vivo gene-editing therapy is a potential one-time treatment.
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Ironwood Places $1B Bet on Biotech That Could Bring Its Next Blockbuster GI Drug
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is paying $1 billion to acquire VectivBio, a biotech whose lead program could become a blockbuster treatment for a gastrointestinal disorder. Preliminary Phase 3 data are expected by the end of 2023.
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Trayt Health Seeks to Increase Access to Diagnoses and Treatments
CEO Malekeh Amini explains how Trayt Health can bridge the gap for patients seeking neurological care.
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How Gamida Cell’s FDA Approval Could Reduce Racial Disparities in Stem Cell Transplants
The FDA approved Omisirge, an allogeneic cell therapy from Gamida Cell that could improve access to stem cell transplants as treatments for blood cancers. The biotech makes its therapy from umbilical cord blood.
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Bio Startup Scorpion Partners With Pierre Fabre for Trials of Targeted Lung Cancer Drugs
Pierre Fabre is paying Scorpion Therapeutics $65 million to begin a partnership on clinical development and potential commercialization of two targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancer. The Scorpion drugs could have safety advantages over approved Johnson & Johnson and Takeda therapies that address the same rare genetic signature.
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Vertex Pays CRISPR Therapeutics $100M to Bring Gene-Editing to Type 1 Diabetes
Vertex Pharmaceuticals aims to use CRISPR Therapeutics’ gene-editing technology to develop type 1 diabetes cell therapies that don’t prompt the immune system to reject them. This approach could compete with a Sana Biotechnology program expected to reach its first test in humans this year.
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Pear Therapeutics’ Cuts Are Not Enough; ‘Strategic Alternatives’ Among Next Steps
Pear Therapeutics isn’t meeting the commercialization goals for its prescription digital therapeutics, so it’s now seeking strategic alternatives for the business. Prospective buyers can pick up Pear’s FDA-cleared products for substance use disorder, opioid use disorder, and insomnia.
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Aiming for an Epigenetics Edge, Chroma Raises $135M to Move Closer to the Clinic
GV led Chroma Medicine’s Series B financing round, which the biotech will apply toward epigenetic medicines that could offer advantages over other editing technologies. Other recent financings include rounds from Cargo Therapeutics and Transcend Therapeutics.
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Blood Clotting Biotech Hemab Hauls In $135M to Drug Rare Bleeding Disorders
Hemab Therapeutics will apply its Series B financing toward clinical development of its lead drug candidate, a potential treatment for Glanzmann thrombasthenia. The capital will also support the rest its pipeline addressing rare bleeding and thrombotic diseases with no approved therapies.