Blackstone Life Sciences made an investment of up to $750 million in Moderna Inc.’s influenza program created with its mRNA technology. The new funding is designed to help propel the program forward and may help bolster a stock that has struggled in the past 12 months.
Updated results from Stoke Therapeutics Inc.’s studies of antisense oligonucleotide STK-001 showed a reduced convulsion seizure frequency in those ages 2 to 18 with Dravet syndrome. The new data, which also showed improved cognition and behavior in participants, substantially boosted the company’s stock value and caused analysts to applaud.
One of the building blocks for newly launched Clasp Therapeutics Corp. is making the right patient choices for treatment. If those who receive the company’s therapy are correctly identified, CEO Robert Ross told BioWorld, it will have a profound effect on outcomes. The missing link in cancer treatment, Ross added, was how to identify a patient, something he said Clasp is able to do.
The week began with PDUFA-delaying news for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. The company said it received two complete response letters (CRLs) from the U.S. FDA regarding the priority BLA for its bispecific antibody to treat lymphoma, odronextamab.
The U.S. FDA has approved Duvyzat (givinostat), from Italfarmaco SpA, for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). It is the first oral, nonsteroidal drug for treating all of DMD’s genetic variants. The oral treatment is approved for those ages 6 and older.
Nearly a year after Prometheus Biosciences Inc. sold for $10.8 billion to Merck & Co. Inc., its former CEO, Mark McKenna, is back in the game with Mirador Therapeutics Inc. Many of his former Prometheus colleagues have joined McKenna. Getting the band back together, McKenna told BioWorld, “is the ultimate compliment.” Mirador just launched with more than $400 million to develop therapies for treating immune-mediated inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.
One of the building blocks for newly launched Clasp Therapeutics Corp. is making the right patient choices for treatment. If those who receive the company’s therapy are correctly identified, CEO Robert Ross told BioWorld, it will have a profound effect on outcomes. The missing link in cancer treatment, Ross added, was how to identify a patient, something he said Clasp is able to do.
Top-line data from Seelos Therapeutics Inc.’s phase II/III study of SLS-005 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) failed to meet statistical significance in its primary and secondary endpoints, continuing the stock’s nearly half-year downward trajectory.
Two sNDAs, one from Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) and the other from Mirum Pharmaceuticals Inc., have received U.S. FDA approval to further expand their treatment indications.
Nine-year-old IFM Therapeutics LLC has notched yet another big deal as Novartis AG will acquire all the outstanding capital stock of IFM Due Inc., a subsidiary of privately held IFM in an agreement that began five years ago. The newest deal brings IFM $90 million up front and makes it eligible for up to $745 million in milestone payments for a deal value of $835 million.
