Karuna Therapeutics Inc. remains on track to launch a phase III study by the end of this year with Karxt against acute psychosis in schizophrenia by way of the broad-based program called Emergent, and the company continues planning for a phase II study testing the combo drug as adjunctive therapy with standard of care in the same indication.
Tango Therapeutics Inc. CEO Barbara Weber told BioWorld that Gilead Sciences Inc.’s decision to greatly expand their 2018 deal in oncology – a pact then valued as high as $1.7 billion – was based on brisker than expected progress in the original, five-target effort.
The FDA’s go-ahead for Roche Holding AG’s Enspryng (satralizumab-mwge) in anti-aquaporin-4 antibody-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder had watchers of the space weighing its market odds against two therapies approved earlier: Soliris (eculizumab) from Boston-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., and the more recently cleared Uplizna (inebilizumab-cdon) from Viela Bio Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md.
Earlier this month, an update on phase I/IIa data rolled out from Rockville, Md.-based Regenxbio Inc. with RGX-314 for age-related wet macular degeneration (AMD). The company has a pivotal program in subretinal delivery of the compound set to start by the end of this year, and questions about routes of administration – always an issue in AMD – continue to simmer.
Wall Street dinged Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc. earlier this week after mixed regulatory news on the nuclear factor erythroid-2 related factor 2 (NRF2) activators omaveloxolone for Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) and bardoxolone for Alport syndrome (AS), but the Plano, Texas-based firm stayed resolute, and its recent deal with Blackstone Life Sciences (BXLS) provides cause for optimism. Increased clarity on paths forward “debunks the bear-case view” of Reata, in the opinion of Jefferies analyst Maury Raycroft, who went as far as to say in a report that the stock “overreaction create[d] a buying opportunity.”
News from Biogen Inc. and partner Eisai Co. Ltd. that U.S. regulators accepted the BLA related to aducanumab for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – and assigned it priority review, no less – set Wall Street abuzz.
Reports out of Russia that the country approved a COVID-19 vaccine came with more questions than answers, as some in the rest of the world fretted over the apparently paltry degree of testing. Though the product has not completed phase III trials – human research thus far has involved only two groups of volunteers of 38 people each – Russia President Vladimir Putin is said to have declared Gam-COVID-Vac adequately studied.
Mark Wilcox, professor of medical microbiology at the University of Leeds, said Seres Therapeutics Inc.’s top-line phase III data with oral microbiome therapeutic SER-109 against recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) are “about as good as it gets” in the tough-to-treat patient population.
News from Biogen Inc. and partner Eisai Co. Ltd. that U.S. regulators accepted the BLA related to aducanumab for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – and assigned it priority review, no less – set Wall Street abuzz, especially as the companies noted in their press release that the FDA “if possible, plans to act early” on the anti-amyloid beta (a-beta) monoclonal antibody. Regulators’ decision came about 30 days after they took receipt of the submission; they could have waited 60.
