Therapy Areas

The Belgian firm banks nearly €77.7m to push its Charcot-Marie-Tooth to proof-of-concept.

The company sees potential for the GLP-1/glucagon receptor dual agonist in MASH as well as alcohol-related liver disease as hopes to move pemvidutide into Phase III in obesity with a partner.

Evaluate Pharma’s top 10 list of unpartnered mid-stage obesity assets shows that few credible challengers to Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound remain available.

CEO Adam Steensberg has led a major change in fortunes for the Danish biotech since March 2022.

Prof Anil Koul shares vignettes of his life and career trajectory, a captivating mix of hope, science and destiny that took him to the lab of eminent cancer biologist Alex Ullrich at the Max Planck Institute and also saw him contribute to the development of breakthrough TB drug bedaquiline. Medicine 3.0, the intersection of science and spirituality are other aspects he talked about.

The company is developing doravirine and islatravir together as an alternative to therapies containing integrase inhibitors, like Biktarvy, especially as HIV patients age.

The two companies were among those presenting data at CROI that highlighted the next frontiers of competition in the HIV space.

CSL’s US influenza vaccine sales were a window into wider issues for vaccine manufacturers that had already impacted the fourth-quarter results of Merck, Pfizer and GSK. There could also be a correlation between lower vaccine sales and the measles outbreak in Texas.

Miltenyi’s leadership calls for a streamlined regulatory framework as India gears to scale in cell and gene therapy. Executives from the German group also talked to Scrip about helping advance local capabilities, delivering point-of-care CAR- T cell therapy to hospitals and pricing dynamics.

Servier takes a Phase I rationally designed cancer candidate for $70m up front, while Black Diamond will wait on more mature data for its Phase II lead candidate in lung cancer.

Deal Snapshot: The antibody-drug conjugate field continues one of the hottest dealmaking spaces and Roche continues to invest heavily. Its latest pact could be transformative for the UK firm which already has a decent number of big pharma partners.

The acquisition is worth up to $1bn and adds to AstraZeneca’s broad array of cell therapy technologies.

The Swiss major’s global health chief Lutz Hegemann tells Scrip on a trip to Rwanda that being a profitable enterprise while helping to improve access to new and older therapies for those who need it most is the real measure of a successful business.

Lotilaner, the active ingredient in Tarsus’s Demodex blepharitis drug Xdemvy, showed significant ability to kill ticks in a small Phase IIa study. Analysts call the Lyme program a likely out-licensing opportunity for Tarsus.

Gains from its COVID-19 vaccine made Serum Institute’s founder the world’s richest healthcare billionaire. But the demand for boosters hasn’t materialized as expected, leading to a deal with Biocon being tweaked. Meanwhile, gains from India’s first indigenously-developed HPV vaccine and Oxford-partnered malaria vaccine seem imminent.

Immix collaborates with Israeli research institutions on BCMA-targeted CAR-T therapy. NeoImmuneTech/NIAID alliance could pave way for “animal rule” approval in acute radiation syndrome.

Taiwan-based PharmaEssentia hopes to add essential thrombocytopenia to the label for its pegylated interferon product, already approved to treat polycythemia vera.

With successful Phase II data versus active comparators for both REGN7508 and REGN9933, Regeneron hopes to position the candidates to compete against existing factor X products.

Hematologists’ concerns about hepatoxicity with hemophilia A gene therapies may limit use, but Phase III data for Pfizer’s candidate at ASH show a lower rate of ALT increases than seen with BioMarin’s Roctavian.

Takeda will pay $200m up front for rights to Phase II elritercept for anemia in patients with MDS and myelofibrosis, allowing Keros to extend its cash runway to 2028.

The Belgian firm banks nearly €77.7m to push its Charcot-Marie-Tooth to proof-of-concept.

Amvuttra will target a substantially larger patient population with a new indication, but it is third to market behind Pfizer’s Vyndaqel and Bridge Bio’s Attruby and will cost more.

Chairman Antoine Papiernik spoke to Scrip about the therapeutic areas that where the VC major is looking at to invest its considerable cash pile.

Battling AstraZeneca in the aldosterone inhibitor space, Mineralys reports Phase III data showing lorundrostat can significantly decrease uncontrolled/resistant blood pressure at six weeks.