Intellia Therapeutics Inc. CEO John Leonard said the deal with Blackstone Life Sciences and Cellex Cell Professionals GmbH will create a new CAR T-cell therapy enterprise that bears “a German background with a strong American accent.” Blackstone committed $250 million to launch an autologous and allogeneic universal CAR T-cell therapy firm that will put together Intellia’s allogeneic cell platform plus CRISPR cell engineering with expertise from CAR T specialist Gemoab GmbH, a subsidiary of Cellex.
The agreement between gout player Horizon plc and RNAi expert Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. could result in a subcutaneously given, infrequently dosed fix for the disease that takes aim at xanthine dehydrogenase. “They brought us the target – it wasn’t something we were developing,” said Arrowhead CEO Christopher Anzalone, but the Pasadena, Calif.-based firm’s research on hepatocyte-directed therapies provides confidence.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) and Eisai Co. Ltd. inked a potential $3.1 billion agreement to co-develop and co-commercialize the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) MORAb-202 for advanced solid tumors. Eisai’s first ADC, MORAb-202 pairs the company’s anti-folate receptor alpha (FRα) antibody with the Tokyo-based firm’s anticancer agent eribulin using an enzyme cleavable linker. It is characterized as a potential best-in-class candidate and is under investigation for tumors that include endometrial, ovarian, lung and breast cancers in two studies: a phase I effort in Japan and a phase I/II experiment in the U.S. The companies plan to enter the registrational stage of development as early as 2022.
As debate continues to rage over the approval and pricing of the Alzheimer’s disease therapy Aduhelm (aducanumab), Biogen Inc. CEO Michel Vounatsos said his firm is “taking a position that is very responsible” but has “yet to be understood out there, and we have to do a better job.”
Blueprint Medicines Corp. gained the FDA’s nod for Ayvakit (avapritinib) to treat systemic mastocytosis (SM), adding another indication to the KIT inhibitor’s label. For the first time, patients have available a targeted therapy designed to block D816V mutant KIT, the central driver of the disease.
The hefty $107.5 million series B financing disclosed June 10 by Synthekine Inc. underscored Wall Street’s interest in engineered cytokines, where an army of companies is developing prospects at varying stages – including Bright Peak Therapeutics Inc., which pulled down a series B in almost exactly the same amount as Synthekine, and on the same day.
Rapt Therapeutics Inc. CEO Brian Wong said RPT-193 monotherapy in atopic dermatitis (AD) “looks really promising, but there’s still quite a bit to learn” about the small molecule, designed to inhibit the migration of Th2 cells into inflamed tissues by blocking CCR4. Investors saw enough to push the shares of South San Francisco-based Rapt up 115.5%, or $21.45, to close at $40.02, after trading as high as $41.99 during the day.
Data from a prospective study rolled out by Allakos Inc. last month at the Digestive Disease Week meeting made the case for broader prevalence than previously believed of eosinophilic gastritis and/or eosinophilic duodenitis – and the Redwood City, Calif.-based firm may have just the drug for the conditions in lirentelimab (AK-002).
Phase II data from Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. in advanced melanoma at the recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology turned up an important relationship between previous anti-PD-1 therapy exposure and the durability of treatment response. Findings added weight to the idea that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) should be deployed earlier in therapy.
During a conference call with investors, Biogen Inc. officials defended the price of Aduhelm (aducanumab) for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with CEO Michel Vounatsos saying the $56,000 per year price tag was based on “the value it is expected to bring to patients, caregivers, and society.”
