An experimental chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy intended for the treatment of multiple sclerosis received a fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration on 19 January, indicating its potential to address a major medical need. The therapy is being developed by Kyverna Therapeutics Inc, a biotech company incorporated in 2018 and located in Emeryville, California, US.
The UK government, through its Innovate UK agency, has increased its five-year funding commitment to the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, an incubator for researchers and small companies working on novel advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). Announced on 8 January, the new financial award is £80 million which represents a 35% increase from the previous five year period.
A new financing round for Revagenix Inc has drawn attention to the ongoing need of the healthcare community for novel antibiotics to overcome resistance to current therapies. On 5 January, Revagenix announced the completion of a Series B financing round along with the appointment of three new investment professionals to its board of directors. The size of the Series B round wasn’t disclosed. It will complement existing US government funding to support the company’s lead programme.
A syndicate of investors led by Sunstone Life Science Ventures has awarded €10 million to Resalis Therapeutics Srl of Italy to advance a non-coding RNA-based compound into the clinic for obesity. The goal is to develop a treatment that could be combined with currently approved glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) medicines and achieve weight reduction that is longer lasting than at present, while preserving muscle mass. In connection with the financing, Claus Andersson, general partner of Sunstone, will join the Resalis Board of Directors.
Galapagos NV continued to advance its plan to bring the manufacture of cell therapies closer to patients under an agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc to supply services to a new production site in California, US. Announced on 4 January, the collaboration is the latest iteration of a strategy being rolled out by Paul Stoffels, a former chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson Inc, who became the Galapagos CEO on 1 April 2022.
Novartis is to take over Calypso Biotech BV, a portfolio company of Gilde Healthcare, a specialist investor based in the Netherlands. Calypso is a spin out of Merck KGaA and is researching and developing antibody therapeutics for a range of chronic autoimmune diseases by blocking interleukin-15 (IL-15). IL-15 is an immune axis that controls downstream immune cascades in many autoimmune diseases.
Merck & Co Inc, a leader in the checkpoint blockade of cancers, is to develop T cell engager compounds following the acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics Inc of South San Francisco, California, US. The takeover, valued at $680 million, is expected to close in the first half of 2024. Harpoon has developed technology for directing a patient’s own immune cells to kill tumour cells. Also known as T cell engagers, Harpoon says its compounds have been optimised for the treatment of solid tumours.
Oxford Biomedica Plc of the UK has acquired ABL Europe SAS of France giving it a significant presence on the continental European market as a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO). ABL Europe is owned by Institut Mérieux, a holding company controlled by the Mérieux family of Lyon.
SanReno Therapeutics, a two-year old biopharma company with headquarters in Shanghai, China, has been acquired by Novartis, giving the Switzerland-based multinational two late-stage assets for immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN), a rare kidney disease. The value of the transaction, which was announced on 5 January, wasn’t disclosed. SanReno was founded in late 2021 as a joint venture between a group of venture capitalists and Chinook Therapeutics Inc, a US company with two Phase 3 assets for IgAN.
GSK Plc has reached an agreement to pay up to $1.4 billion to acquire Aiolos Bio Inc, an early clinical stage company with a respiratory product in-licensed from China. Unusually the upfront part of the deal is $1 billion, in excess of the $400 million in potential milestone payments which are contingent on reaching certain regulatory goals. The deal was announced on 9 January and will bolster GSK’s pipeline, which includes multiple respiratory products targeting interleukin 5 (IL-5), a powerful pro-inflammatory cytokine.