Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc has developed a new and improved version of its bispecific antibody CDX for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia, a subset of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and potentially for conditioning in bone marrow transplantations.

Antibodies targeting cytotoxic T-lymphocyte protein 4 (CLTA-4) have faced challenges due to frequent adverse events and limited efficacy, thus pushing the search for next-generation anti-CTLA-4 antibodies that balance T regulatory cell (Treg) depletion with CD8 T-cell activation for cancer immunotherapy.

Mestag Therapeutics Ltd. has been awarded a £1.5 million ($1.9 million) grant from Innovate UK’s Cancer Therapeutics program to accelerate the development of MST-0300.

Imbiologics Inc. scored a potential ₩430 billion (US$315.5 million) deal with China’s Hangzhou Zhongmei Huadong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. for Oxtima, an autoimmune disease program with two assets co-developed by Seoul, South Korea-based HK Inno.N Corp.

Invenra Inc.’s bispecific antibody, INV-724, developed for the treatment of neuroblastoma, has been awarded orphan drug and rare pediatric disease designations by the FDA.

Five months after getting a complete response letter from the U.S. FDA, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. has landed conditional European marketing approval for odronextamab, a bispecific antibody for treating lymphoma. Now named Ordspono, the approval is for treating adult patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, after two or more lines of therapy. The European Commission also approved Merck & Co. Inc.’s Winrevair (sotatercept) for pulmonary arterial hypertension and ARS Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Eurneffy (inhaled epinephrine) for anaphylaxis.

The U.S. FDA approved Janssen Biotech Inc.’s Rybrevant (amivantamab-vmjw) plus a new oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor called Lazcluze (lazertinib) as a first-line combination treatment to treat select non-small-cell lung cancers.