Swedish biotech PharmNovo has raised about SEK39m (€3.5m) to help finance a phase 2 study of PN6047, its experimental treatment for neuropathic pain.
French biotech AB Science is discontinuing three masitinib trials as it concentrates its clinical resources on an ALS phase 3 programme and the early-stage development of AB8939 in acute myeloid leukaemia.
Roche has discontinued two Huntington’s disease programmes after its Ionis-partnered drug tominersen failed to improve patients’ symptoms and a separate candidate raised concerns in animal studies.
AstraZeneca and Ionis have suffered a major late-stage setback after Wainua/Wainzua (eplontersen) failed to hit the primary endpoint in a phase 3 trial in transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), denting hopes that the RNA-targeted therapy could compete in one of cardiology’s fastest-growing rare disease markets.
GSK has pulled out of its neuroscience collaboration with Alector, ending a 2021 alliance that began with a $700m upfront payment but has since been hit by two clinical setbacks.
Cambridge-based Alchemab Therapeutics has added £25m (€29m) to its Series A financing, taking the round to £109m (€128m) and giving the UK biotech fresh capital to advance its AI-enabled antibody pipeline.
AstraZeneca has moved to strengthen its respiratory pipeline with a late-stage Chinese COPD asset, striking a deal that gives it a lower-cost shot at a market MSD recently entered through its $10bn Verona Pharma acquisition.
Boehringer Ingelheim has licensed oncology rights to Prime Vector Technologies’ (PVT) Orf virus platform to develop a new generation of cancer vaccines.
Austria’s Graph Therapeutics has raised $5m in new financing, bringing its total funding to more than $10m as it advances internal drug discovery programmes in inflammation and immunology built on its AI-enabled platform.
French gene therapy biotech EG 427 has rebranded as Cyllene Therapeutics and raised €33m in a Series C round to push its lead neuro-urology candidate EG110A toward late-stage clinical testing.