BNC Korea Inc. is picking up exclusive commercial rights to Kariya Pharmaceuticals ApS’ dual GLP-1/GIP agonists for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease in five countries – a move that comes shortly after BNC Korea dropped $1.5 million into the Danish pharma for a 4.5% stake.
Nxera Pharma Co. Ltd. announced that its partner, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., is advancing NBI-1117568 to phase II trials for treatment of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Robust top-line phase III data showed Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc.’s marketed oral atypical antipsychotic drug, Caplyta (lumateperone), achieved statistically significant and clinically meaningful best-in-class results, potentially expanding its reach into the billion-dollar major depressive disorder market. The company’s shares (NASDAQ:ITCI) surged to a 52-week high of $84.89 throughout the day, closing at $79.84, up 23.3%, or $15.08, on April 16.
Preclinical data of rabbits having convulsions has prompted the U.S. FDA to place a clinical hold on Neumora Therapeutics Inc.’s phase I study of NMRA-266 in healthy adults. Neumora said about 30 participants had been dosed so far in the single ascending and multiple ascending dose study, with no evidence of convulsions seen.
Wall Street may not have responded as positively as Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. would have liked after the firm unveiled new data from the phase I/II study with GTX-102 for the treatment of Angelman syndrome (AS). Patients in expansion cohorts A & B treated with a set dose and regimen of the intrathecally delivered antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) showed rapid and clinically meaningful improvement across multiple domains.
Investors anxious to see data from Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s phase III Raise study testing intravenous ganaxolone in refractory status epilepticus (RSE) will have to wait a little longer, as the trial failed to meet the predefined criteria for stopping at the interim analysis, sending shares (NASDAQ:MRNS) down nearly 83%.
With high hopes for its LPA1R antagonist program, Contineum Therapeutics Inc. has priced an IPO of 6.9 million shares of its class A common stock at $16 per share as it seeks to generate $110 million in gross proceeds. The San Diego-based company began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker CTNM on April 5, with shares ending the day at $15.40, down 3.8%. There have been nine other biopharma IPOs so far in 2024.
At a recent meeting on “Research priorities for preventing and treating Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias” (ADRD), convened by the National Academies, one consensus priority on ADRD research was that there needs to be more of it at every stage. Several speakers presented stark numbers on the relative volume of research in cancer and neurodegeneration. Research output, measured in peer-reviewed papers, for dementia is estimated to be around 10,000 papers annually, compared to 150,000 for cancer, while AD clinical trials are also few and far between compared to cancer trials. This final installment of BioWorld’s series on Alzheimer’s explores some of the reasons for this discrepancy along with the latest advances and ongoing efforts to accelerate research and drug development in the field.
Less than a month after disclosing that its confirmatory phase III trial of Relyvrio (sodium phenylbutyrate plus taurursodiol) fell short of its endpoint, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. is withdrawing the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug from the market.
Building D&D Pharmatech Inc. has been a rollercoaster ride, according to CEO Seulki Lee. The U.S. and Korea-based biotech is on another ascent, having scored U.S. FDA fast track designation for its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) drug, ahead of its third attempt at a public listing.