Citryll BV has closed an €85 million (US$89.8 million) series B, enabling it to take CIT-013, an antibody designed to block pathological neutrophil extracellular traps that drive a wide range of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, into phase IIa development.
At the BioFuture 2024 conference held in New York in November, Seema Kumar, the CEO of Cure, described women’s health as something that has been directed at the “bikini area.” That “bikini” bias extended to both diseases and their causes – women’s health covered the breasts and reproductive system, and its causes were hormonal. Both concepts are far too narrow.
Headlines in March about Cartesian Therapeutics Inc. reminded investors of the firm’s already-intriguing push with Descartes-08, an autologous anti-BCMA mRNA CAR T therapy, in the works for myasthenia gravis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Excitement generally is mounting around prospects for CAR T therapies in autoimmune disease, where developers aplenty are pursuing early stage opportunities.
Artiva Biotherapeutics Inc. raised $167 million through an upsized IPO, with funds aimed at the development of its lead AlloNK program for systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune indications. Just a few days ago, the San Diego based company had aimed to sell 8.4 million shares between $14 and $16 each, but it raised the number of shares offered to 13.92 million and lowered the price to $12 each. The upsize brings Artiva’s shares outstanding following the IPO to about 22.8 million, giving the company a market cap of $273.6 million based on the IPO price.
Interleukin-4 (IL-4) plays an important role in regulating inflammation. While several antibody-based options targeting IL-4 have been reported, strategies based on small molecule inhibitors have proven difficult to find.
Empress Therapeutics Inc., a Flagship Pioneering firm, has come out of stealth with $50 million in initial funding, a new chief scientific officer and an ambitious plan to file multiple INDs for novel small-molecule compounds over the next two years.
Aqilion AB has sold rights to its TAK1 inhibitors to Merck KGaA in an exclusive license and research collaboration agreement worth at least €960 million (US$1.03 billion) including potential milestones and royalties. The global giant will pay the Swedish biotech – which is headquartered in Helsingborg – €10 million in cash up front for the program and potential development and commercialization milestones and tiered royalties on worldwide net sales of more than €950 million.
The combination of two sequencing techniques has unveiled features of a subpopulation of cells that could be producing plaques in atherosclerosis. This process is associated with an autoimmune component driven by CD4+ T cells, according to a study from researchers at Leiden University.
The combination of two sequencing techniques has unveiled features of a subpopulation of cells that could be producing plaques in atherosclerosis. This process is associated with an autoimmune component driven by CD4+ T cells, according to a study from researchers at Leiden University.
“I think that we can clearly say now that atherosclerosis is a very clear autoimmune component. It is a multifactorial disease, a combination of genes, and lifestyle, but also inflammation and the immune system,” Ilze Bot and Bram Slütter, associate professors at the Division of Biotherapeutics of Leiden University, told BioWorld.
Matchpoint Therapeutics Inc. has launched with $100 million in financing to research drugs based on covalent chemistry targeting inflammatory diseases, aiming to offer more patient-friendly oral alternatives to the biologic injections that dominate the field.
