The death of a patient caused Seattle Children's to pause its phase I study of relapsed/refractory pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It’s another hitch in the world of ground-breaking CAR T treatments that can have a serious downside.
Gamma imaging is about to move out of the centralized nuclear medicine department and to the point of care, with the start of a U.S. study of a portable device Seracam, under development by Serac Imaging Systems Ltd. The study, at Ohio State University, will compare the performance of Seracam to its larger, fixed, counterpart in imaging the same patients, on the same day.
Boston Scientific Corp. said that three-year primary patency and the four-year freedom from target lesion revascularization (TLR) rate for patients treated with the Ranger drug-coated balloon (DCB), in the Ranger II superficial femoral artery (SFA) study, are the best ever reported data for randomized trials using DCBs.
Since late 2006, when hiked levels of aldosterone and increases in blood pressure foiled Pfizer Inc.’s torcetrapib, researchers have been wary of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors. But not all researchers. Among the still-hopeful is Newamsterdam Pharma NV, which recently rolled out positive phase II data with obicetrapib, and the company is forging ahead despite other CETPs that have not fared well in late-stage testing after performing nicely in phase II, including candidates from Merck & Co. Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co.
Disc Medicine Inc.’s positive phase II data from an ongoing, open-label trial called Beacon with oral bitopertin in erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) and X-linked protoporphyria (XLP) whetted investor appetite for the results of the other mid-stage Disc experiment known as Aurora with the compound, due early next year.
Promising early data continue to roll out for Intellia Therapeutics Inc.’s hereditary angioedema (HAE) candidate, NTLA-2002, with one of the earliest treated patients in the phase I study remaining attack-free for more than a year. But it was the systemic CRISPR candidate’s potential as a one-time treatment that generated the most discussion on the company’s call as investors tried to assess its potential advantage in a crowded HAE market.
For Jeff Galvin, the CEO and founder of newly launched Addimmune Inc., HIV is not a condition that’s in the rearview mirror. It needs a functional cure to save lives, make people healthier and save money that need not have been spent. People wonder why it’s worth bothering to cure HIV, Galvin told BioWorld, when they are taking their medications every day and they are feeling pretty close to normal. But it’s not close for Galvin, who noted that there are side effects from taking the pills that can cause headaches, fatigue, nausea and diarrhea.
Following strong phase I study data in malignant melanoma released a year ago, Ultimovacs ASA’s lead candidate, UV-1, stumbled in the phase II trial, which did not meet the primary endpoint of progression-free survival in second-line treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Standing as one of the more prominent among incurable conditions, Parkinson’s disease (PD) still hasn’t met a medicine or surgical intervention that can slow or stop progression, despite efforts of many drug developers testing new strategies.
It has been a tough spring for Fibrogen Inc., which reported another phase III miss on June 7, this time for rare disease drug pamrevlumab to treat non-ambulatory patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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