By selling U.S. rights to Yutiq, EyePoint Pharmaceuticals gets $75 million cash to support its drug pipeline. The company’s lead product candidate is in mid-stage development for wet age-related macular degeneration and non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Nido Biosciences’ lead drug hits a previously undrugged pocket as a way to potentially treat the rare neuromuscular disorder spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy. The startup’s tech platform screens neurons to find targets for new neurological disorder drugs.
As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers.
Sobi said it plans to seek FDA approval of the gout drug, SEL-212, in 2024. If approved, it would compete against Krystexxa, a Horizon Therapeutics drug projected to become a blockbuster seller.
While most targeted protein degradation drug research has focused on cancer, Kymera Therapeutics’ Phase 1 data bring validation for this approach in treating inflammation. Kymera partner Sanofi has elected to advance the biotech’s program to mid-stage testing in two inflammatory skin disorders.
Taking the opposite approach of targeted protein degradation, biotech company Entact Bio is developing medicines that stabilize proteins and even enhances their function. This approach that could apply to cancer and certain rare diseases, and Entact's $81 million in Series A financing enables it to work on multiple programs in parallel.
Eli Lilly’s stalled cancer drug prexasertib has another chance under Acrivon Therapeutics, whose IPO will fund a fresh slate of mid-stage clinical trials. While attention is focused on the former Lilly asset, also at stake is Acrivon’s technology platform that relies on proteomics rather than genomics for identifying patients appropriate for targeted therapies.
The future looks bright for the integrated specialty pharmacy model – for health systems, providers, and most importantly, for patients.
An antiviral that Enanta Pharmaceuticals is developing for respiratory syncytial virus infection failed to beat a placebo in its first Phase 2 test. But the biotech notes that these study participants weren’t very sick and may have recovered on their own, so it’s now pinning its hopes on ongoing studies in higher-risk groups, such as transplant patients.
Eli Lilly is among the new investors joining the Series B round of Arkuda Therapeutics, a biotech developing a drug to treat a rare, inherited form of dementia. If the biotech’s approach works, it could also have applications in other neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Machine learning is core to the drug research of Seismic Therapeutic, a new biotech startup developing novel drugs for immunology indications. CEO Jo Viney said the company’s initial focus is addressing dysregulation of adaptive immunity.
PlateletBio trails Sanofi among others in pursuit of a new therapy for a rare blood clotting disorder that has few treatments. But the biotech startup could stand apart from those drugs with its new class of cell therapy, which harnesses the properties of platelets.
Closing cancer health equity gaps require medical breakthroughs made possible by new funding approaches.
Neumora Therapeutics unveiled $500 million in capital and a research partnership with Amgen. The startup analyzes neurological data to inform its drug research and development; President and Chief Operating Officer Lori Lyons-Williams said researching psychiatric drugs and neurodegenerative drugs within the same company allows brain insights from one area to inform the other.
Following the close of the transaction, athenahealth will be combined with Virence Health, the former GE Healthcare unit Veritas bought earlier this year.
An expansion of a December 2015 agreement between the two companies includes up to $125 million in milestones and could yield more than $1 billion for SQZ.
Sources told the New York Post that the deal would likely keep an athenahealth share price in the $135 range.
The company plans to use the funding to advance LYR-210 into a Phase II clinical trial and also explore its development platform in other ENT diseases.