News

Less than a year after signing a lucrative licensing deal with Eli Lilly and Co, UK-based Evox Therapeutics Ltd has completed a Series C financing round to advance therapeutics based on exosomes into the clinic. The £69.2 million financing was led by Redmile Group, a US hedge fund, which was joined by the new investors OrbiMed Healthcare Fund Management and the Invus Group LLC.

Proceeds of the financing will enable several compounds directed at rare disease to progress towards clinical development

Galapagos NV ended 2020 with a strong balance sheet but a reconfigured pipeline following its decision, together with partner Gilead Sciences Inc, to abandon plans to pursue a US marketing authorisation for Jyseleca (filgotinib), its small molecule drug for rheumatoid arthritis. The Food and Drug Administration turned back the application in August because of concerns about its benefit/risk profile at a dose of 200 mg. The two companies dropped plans for a US filing in December. The same drug was approved in the EU and Japan however.

The Medicxi investment group has launched Centessa Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a new pharmaceutical company that brings together a group of diverse assets in order to develop them at scale with oversight from experts in the field. The launch marks a new stage in the Medicxi investment model that focuses on developing new drugs from single assets with a minimum of infrastructure in order to increase productivity and improve the return on investment.

Imcyse SA has raised an additional €21.3 million in Series B financing in order to advance its pipeline of immunotherapy compounds and simultaneously brought Pfizer Inc on board as a shareholder. Earlier, Imcyse announced a licensing deal with Pfizer to develop a preclinical asset for rheumatoid arthritis.

Novartis and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced plans to work together to develop an in vivo gene therapy for sickle cell disease, one of the oldest known and most common genetic disorders. The project will pool the Swiss company’s drug discovery expertise with the Gates Foundation’s charitable healthcare mission. A therapy developed by the collaboration would be distributed to low and middle-income countries.

A small molecule drug being developed by Immunic Inc has shown evidence of clinical activity in hospitalised patients with moderate Covid-19 disease, the company announced on 17 February. The finding, from a Phase 2 trial, suggests that the drug, IMU-838, may have application in patients aged over 65 years, as well as preventing long-term Covid-19 symptoms such as fatigue.

Lynparza (olaparib) has passed an important threshold in a Phase 3 trial of patients with early breast cancer with the result that it will undergo a primary analysis for efficacy earlier than planned. This follows a recommendation by the trial’s independent data monitoring committee which concluded that the drug has the potential to achieve a sustainable and clinically relevant treatment effect in patients, according to the sponsors AstraZeneca Plc and Merck & Co Inc.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new small molecule drug for patients with small cell lung cancer who are set to receive chemotherapy but may be at risk of damage to their bone marrow. Cosela (trilaciclib) is to be administered before chemotherapy in order to preserve bone marrow and immune system function.

The World Health Organization has granted an emergency use authorization to the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford University making it eligible for distribution in up to 145 low and middle-income countries. Distribution will take place through Covax (Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access), a global vaccine project being led by the Gavi public-private partnership, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the WHO.

Bluebird bio Inc announced on 16 February the temporary suspension of two gene therapy trials following reports of two cases of cancer. The trials were being conducted in support of a prospective gene therapy for sickle cell disease. The company is investigating the cause of the cancers in order to determine if there is any relationship with the lentiviral vector used in the studies.