Vertex Pharmaceuticals is known for its cystic fibrosis drugs, but the company aims to diversify with a pipeline that reaches more therapeutic areas. CEO Reshma Kewalramani explained Vertex’s strategy during the World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston.
MIT spinout Bloomer Tech is developing a wearable electrocardiogram device designed to look and feel like a bra.
Hear executives from Quantum Health, Surescripts, EY, Clinical Architecture and Personify Health share their views on digital transformation in healthcare.
HilleVax’s norovirus vaccine failed a Phase 2b study in infants, but it’s not the end of the road for the biotech. A business deal this year brought HilleVax a Phase 1-ready norovirus vaccine candidate designed to offer even broader protection.
Ascidian Therapeutics’ technology edits RNA to treat inherited disorders. While the startup’s lead internal program is for the retinal disorder Stargardt disease, its new R&D alliance with Roche will focus on developing RNA-editing therapies for neurological indications.
Rapport Therapeutics’ IPO came with a concurrent private placement that boosted the biotech’s cash haul. The new capital will support clinical development of a lead drug with a novel approach to focal epilepsy, a form of the disorder that affects 1.8 million people in the U.S.
Rapport Therapeutics’ lead program could offer more targeted epilepsy treatment compared to currently available anti-seizure medications, which introduce many side effects. The IPO will support plans to develop the oral small molecule in focal epilepsy as well as peripheral neuropathic pain and bipolar disorder.
Closing cancer health equity gaps require medical breakthroughs made possible by new funding approaches.
The FDA approved X4 Pharmaceuticals drug Xolremdi for treating WHIM syndrome. The molecule, which addresses the underlying cause of this rare immunodeficiency, was licensed from Sanofi’s Genzyme subsidiary.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals gains a Phase 3-ready Alpine Immune Sciences drug with potential applications in a wide range of immunological disorders. The lead indication for the Alpine drug, povetacicept, is the chronic kidney disease IgA nephropathy.
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.
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.
As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.