Roche’s sefaxersen significantly reduced proteinuria in a Phase 3 IgA nephropathy (IgAN) trial, but the Swiss pharma stopped short of disclosing the size of the effect.
It’s been nearly a decade since the first CAR-T cancer cell therapy was approved by the FDA, offering a powerful and durable therapy against tumours. But when it comes to fighting solid tumours, CAR-Ts rapidly show their limits. A new generation of cancer cell therapies could set new standards and change the way we think about drug delivery in solid tumours.
Boehringer Ingelheim has partnered with New York-based Envisagenics to hunt for new targets in hard-to-treat solid tumors, opening up more than $1 billion (€873 million) in potential payments.
London-based Big Picture Bio has launched with £2.2 million (€2.6 million) in funding to build an AI platform that designs drug combinations for cancer, starting largely with medicines that are already approved or in clinical development.
Belgian biotech Remynd has secured a €3.5 million investment from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) to move its septin-modulating drug REM392 into patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
Novartis has licensed an undisclosed preclinical radioligand therapy from China’s BoomRay Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up to $900 million (€786 million), adding another asset to one of the pharma group’s core oncology platforms.
Beacon Therapeutics’ gene therapy laru-zova met its U.S. pivotal endpoint in X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, while results on the trial’s separately designated European primary efficacy measure were less clear-cut.
Australian radiopharma company Telix Pharmaceuticals has agreed to acquire Munich-based ITM Isotope Technologies for an initial $1.65 billion (€1.44 billion), combining Telix’s commercial radiopharma business with one of Europe’s largest producers of therapeutic radioisotopes.
Dutch biotech Matisse Pharmaceuticals has raised €14 million in a Series A financing to advance isupartob sodium through Phase 2 development in sepsis.
NovartisNovartis has stopped developing its TREM2 antibody VHB937 (lifonebart) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) after the 251-patient Phase 2 ASTRALS trial missed its primary and secondary endpoints, and shortly after Axoltis Pharma suffered a similar Phase 2 setback.