After raising AU$2.2 million in its series A round, University of Western Australia spinout Lixa Pty Ltd. has emerged from stealth mode and is gearing up for clinical trials of its anti-biofilm platform technology that could preserve antibiotics in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
Researchers from Arbutus Biopharma Corp. presented preclinical data for the novel hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsid assembly inhibitor, AB-836, being developed for the treatment of chronic HBV infection.
Working from a lead tetrahydro-beta-carboline acid product which had been found to have antimalarial properties and to act as an inhibitor of MEP, Virginia Tech and University of Georgia scientists and their collaborators synthesized related compounds.
Arcturus Therapeutics Inc. has obtained an award for up to US$63.2 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to expand its current influenza vaccine program to include development of a pandemic influenza vaccine based on its proprietary self-amplifying mRNA platform.
Ocean Biomedical Inc., a company with preclinical programs in oncology, fibrosis, infectious disease treatments and vaccines, is poised to go public via a merger with Aesther Healthcare Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Astrivax BV has raised €30 million (US$30.1 million) in a seed round to take forward the development of a novel vaccine technology that combines a plasmid vector with a replication-competent virus.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s dengue fever vaccine, Qdenga, was approved in Indonesia Aug. 23, making it the first global approval for the tetravalent vaccine. The approval marks Takeda’s first marketed vaccine outside of Japan. Indonesia’s National Agency for Drug and Food Control approved the vaccine for prevention of dengue disease caused by any serotype in individuals 6 years to 45 years of age.
Immunoprecise Antibodies Ltd.'s Polytope TATX-03 antibody combination therapy has been shown to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including the omicron BA.5 subvariant, in an authentic virus assay.