Buoyed by the progress it has made with its lead integrin therapy for moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, MORF-057, which significantly reduced disease activity in a phase IIa trial, Morphic Therapeutic Inc. is raising $240 million in a public offering to further advance the candidate through the clinic.
With its sights set on a series A and an IPO following a £3.5 million (US$4.4 million) investment round in 2021, Scottish biotech ILC Therapeutics Ltd. is hoping to make waves with a sublingual interferon antiviral to treat COVID-19. The USP for the company’s lead, Alfacyte, is the fact that it’s an artificial version of interferon, so it has less of a propensity to cause the flu-like symptoms that can come from treatment with natural kinds, which hike levels of cytokines and interleukins. As a hybrid interferon that is composed of interferon alpha-10 and interferon alpha-12, Alfacyte is “up to 10,000 times less likely” to cause adverse effects, according to ILC CEO Alan Walker.
A heart-protective cardiac myosin inhibitor and two biologics – one for a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and another for an inflammatory skin condition – were among the therapies recommended for approval by the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use this week.
The long-anticipated top-line phase IIa study results for Morphic Therapeutic Inc.’s oral alpha 4 beta 7 integrin inhibitor, MORF-057, have surpassed even the company’s own expectations, with a significant decline in disease activity seen in moderate to severe ulcerative colitis (UC) patients combined with a safety profile consistent with phase I findings.
Eli Lilly and Co. is selling worldwide rights to its hypoglycemia nasal treatment Baqsimi to Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a deal potentially worth over $1 billion. Under the agreement, Amphastar, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., will foot a $500 million cash payment on closing, and will pay Indianapolis-based Lilly an additional $125 million on the one year anniversary of closing. Lilly is also eligible to receive milestone payments of up to $450 million, based on annual sales of $175 million and $200 million, and on total net sales over five years of $950 million.
The European Commission is bringing out rules designed to further simplify and streamline procedures for pharmaceutical companies planning on merging under EU Merger Regulation rules. The commission assesses mergers and acquisitions of companies whose turnover exceeds certain thresholds to prevent concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or in a substantial part of it.
With scientists yet to discover the specific antigen that confers protection from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), there are currently no prophylactic vaccines available for the diseases it causes, the most well-known of which is infectious mononucleosis but which evidence suggests might also extend to immune disorders, multiple sclerosis and various cancers. This hasn’t stopped companies from trying, and one such player, EBViously Inc., is hedging its bets with a wider net, using as many proteins as possible to mimic the original viral pathogen and its complexity in a vaccine composed of non-infectious virus-like particles.
Providing a much-needed lift to struggling Gamida Cell Ltd., the U.S. FDA has approved the firm’s advanced cell therapy Omisirge (omidubicel-onlv) to reduce the risk of infection in patients with hematologic malignancies aged 12 years and older who are scheduled to have umbilical cord blood transplantation.
Torl Biotherapeutics LLC has raised $158 million in a series B round as it seeks to nudge its anti-Claudin-6 antibody-drug conjugate candidates, TORL-123 and TORL-2307, beyond phase I trials for the treatment of ovarian and gastric cancers, respectively. Claudin-6, or CLDN6, is a molecule that forms tight junctions around cells. It is highly expressed in a range of solid tumor types, so is a popular target for drug development.
With the backing of €2 million (US$2.17 million) in seed funding from venture capital company Adbio partners, French biotech Calida Therapeutics hopes that drawing on some U.S. academic research into thrombo-inflammatory disorders will enable it to develop a series of monoclonal antibodies.
