Mozart Therapeutics Inc. CEO Katie Fanning said the firm’s $55 million series A financing will allow the filing of an IND, probably in early 2024, for a prospect in celiac disease. Founded in July 2020, Seattle-based Mozart is based on research into the CD8 T-cell regulatory network, which has been found to play an important role in surveillance, recognition and elimination of inappropriately activated autoreactive and pathogenic immune cells.
When James Peyer, Cambrian Biopharma Inc.’s CEO, watched his grandfather fail every cancer treatment and eventually pass away, he came to a realization that now forms the backbone of his company. “The more I learned about cancer, the more convinced I became that we were approaching cancer as a disease in the wrong way,” Peyer told BioWorld. “We were waiting until people were sick and only then doing something about it.” Cambrian just closed on an oversubscribed series C that brought in $100 million to develop a pipeline of therapies designed to treat and prevent age-related diseases.
Biogen Inc. opened the 37th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) virtual meeting with data showing those treated with its multiple sclerosis (MS) therapies had an effective antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination.
After nearly 20 years in development, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s antiviral drug, maribavir, will get its day before the FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee Oct. 7. During the course of its development by various companies, the drug’s indication has morphed from a prophylaxis to a treatment of resistant or refractory cytomegalovirus infection in both solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients.
PERTH, Australia – Cynata Therapeutics Ltd. has regained rights to its Cymerus mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) product, CYP-001, for graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) from former licensee Fujifilm Corp., with the two companies negotiating a new partnership under which Fujifilm will manufacture the product.
In a deal that could total about $602 million, Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. will collaborate with Incyte Corp. to develop and develop axatilimab, Syndax’s anti-CSF-1R monoclonal antibody. Syndax is to receive $117 million up front, a $35 million equity investment and could bring in another $350 million in regulatory, development and commercial milestone payments.
The axolotl, which can regenerate many of its body parts, was the inspiration for Walking Fish Therapeutics Inc., which just closed on a $50 million series A financing to advance its B-cell therapies for oncology, rare disease, regenerative medicine, autoimmune disease and recombinant antibody production.
Sanofi SA has added to its general medicines portfolio with a $1.9 billion acquisition of Kadmon Holding Inc. and its recently-approved graft-vs.-host disease drug Rezurock (belumosudil).
Less than six months after closing a $55 million series A round, Asher Biotherapeutics Inc. has added another $108 million in a series B round to accelerate development of its early stage pipeline of targeted cytokine-based immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune disease and infection.
Hebecell Corp. closed on a $53 million series A funding to continue advancing its off-the-shelf pluripotent stem cell CAR-natural killer cell (PSC-CAR-NK) therapy program into the clinic. Allen Feng, Hebecell’s chief scientific officer, has worked in stem cell development for more than 16 years. He’s seen a lot of technological change, especially in the past two years. Everyone is using the same technology, he said, but added that Hebecell’s technology is different from anyone else’s. It’s much simpler technology and has “very good potential” to move into large-scale industrial production.
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