News

Immunic Inc, which is co-located in the US and Germany, has raised gross proceeds of $103.5 million to support development of its pipeline of small molecule immunology drugs, the most advanced of which is being investigated for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The underwritten public offering of 5.75 million shares was priced at $18 per share, a discount from its closing price on Nasdaq on 4 August of $19.43.

SVB Leerink was the bookrunning manager for the offering. Wedbush PacGrow and Ladenburg Thalmann acted as co-managers.

Data from two Phase 3 studies of the antibody therapeutic ofatumumab in relapsing multiple sclerosis have been published in the 6 August 2020 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, illustrating the drug’s possible role as a first-choice option for patients with the disease, Novartis announced on 5 August. The data compared ofatumumab with teriflunomide (Aubagio), a marketed multiple sclerosis treatment.

Germany-based Medigene AG continued to progress its pipeline of cellular immunotherapies for cancer in the first half year of 2020 with the launch of a Phase 1 trial of a candidate product for patients suffering from relapsed blood cancers.

Freeline Therapeutics became a public company on 7 August with the issue of 8.8 million American Depositary Shares on the US Nasdaq market raising gross proceeds of $158.8 million for the development of its portfolio of gene therapy products. The lead product, FLT180a, is in a Phase 1/2 study for patients with haemophilia B, a blood clotting disorder caused by a missing or defective Factor IX clotting protein.

The ADSs, which represent 8.8 million ordinary shares, were priced at $18 per ADS. They will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FRLN.

A Phase 3 trial of the checkpoint inhibitor Tecentriq (atezolizumab), combined with paclitaxel, did not reach statistical significance on its primary endpoint of progression free survival in patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer, the developer Roche announced on 6 August. This is despite the fact that an earlier study of the same drug showed a benefit.

T-knife GmbH, a new company with technology for humanising T cell receptors derived from transgenic mice, has raised €66 million in a Series A financing round in order to develop therapies to treat solid tumours. Current gene based cell therapies for cancer have been highly successful in treating haematological malignancies. However thus far they have been unable to overcome multiple barriers for the treatment of solid tumours.

MorphoSys AG has drawn up a broad development plan for its newly authorised antibody therapeutic Monjuvi (tafasitamab) which, if successful, would see the drug investigated for a number of B cell malignancies. Monjuvi was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on 31 July in combination with lenalidomide for the treatment of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The approval marked an important milestone for the German company which is now a fully integrated biopharmaceutical enterprise.

H. Lundbeck A/S has stopped a Phase 2 proof of concept study of a small molecule drug for schizophrenia after an interim analysis of the data showed the trial was unlikely to achieve statistical significance on its primary endpoint. The drug Lu AF11167 is an inhibitor of the phosphodiesterase 10A enzyme.

Evotec SE is to develop antisense oligonucleotide drugs for a number of indications under a new drug discovery collaboration with Secarna Pharmaceuticals GmbH of Munich, Germany. Secarna was founded in 2015 and has more than 15 programmes in development focusing on oncology, immunology, ophthalmology as well as cardiometabolic diseases.

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The agreement was announced on 5 August, only a week after Vico Therapeutics BV of the Netherlands raised $31 million for its preclinical antisense oligonucleotide platform.

A group of international investors led by Life Sciences Partners has raised $31 million for Vico Therapeutics BV, a young Dutch company with a preclinical antisense oligonucleotide asset which is being developed for rare central nervous system (CNS) diseases. The Series A financing was co-led by Kurma Partners with participation by Polaris Partners and others.