Fresh off ending one antifibrosis program in December, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (BI) is spinning up an expansive new effort in the area this month, promising Singapore-based Enleofen Bio Pte. Ltd. potential payouts of more than $1 billion per product from a preclinical interleukin-11 platform.
San Diego-based Atyr Pharma Inc. CEO Sanjay Shukla told BioWorld that the company plans to move into a registrational trial with lead candidate ATYR-1923 in pulmonary sarcoidosis (PS) if data from the ongoing phase Ib/IIa trial, due later this year, turn out positive. Releasing patients from steroid burdens “would be a real game-changer,” he said, noting that people with PS take as much as 25 mg of prednisone per day to control their coughs and shortness of breath.
Acceleron Pharma Inc. and Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc., two Cambridge, Mass.-based companies that have benefited from partnerships, agreed to an R&D collaboration and license agreement to identify small molecules for treating an undisclosed target in pulmonary disease.
A Chinese study has established a previously unknown direct mechanistic link between elevated mechanical tension caused by impaired alveolar regeneration and progressive idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), highlighting a pathogenic mechanism that may underlie fibrosis.
Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc. CEO Meenu Chhabra pointed to a “new reality in cystic fibrosis [CF] research” faced by her firm and others: the challenge of enrolling the best patients.
Children are more susceptible to developing allergic asthma than adults. An estimated 6 million children have allergic asthma, making asthma one of the most common long-term diseases of childhood. Asthma is potentially life-threatening, yet there is no cure, rather only management of symptoms. Progress in understanding the disease was reported in the Dec 17, 2019, issue of Immunity.
Seongnam, Korea-based Bridge Biotherapeutics Inc. nailed down a deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (BI) to develop the former's phase I autotaxin (ATX) inhibitor, BBT-877, for fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).