News

A Phase 3 trial of a potential first line therapy for a type of small cell lung cancer which has spread to other parts of the body, failed to meet its co-primary endpoint of progression free survival, the developer Roche announced on 30 March.

The trial was testing tiragolumab, an antibody targeting the immune checkpoint TIGIT, together with Tecentriq (atezolizumab) and chemotherapy. The combination therapy was compared with Tecentriq and chemotherapy alone in 490 people with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

A cell-based gene therapy for multiple myeloma has been recommended by the European Medicines Agency for patients with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer that causes plasma cells to grow out of control. Symptoms can include bone fracture or even kidney failure. The drug, Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel), is a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell medicine consisting of a patient’s own immune cells which have been engineered to target and kill cancer cells.

Orion Corp has decided to concentrate future research on the development of new treatments for cancer and pain and discontinue work in neurodegeneration and rare diseases. The decision, announced on 24 March, comes as the Finnish company and its partner Bayer AG make regulatory applications in the US and EU for a new indication for Orion’s prostate cancer drug Nubeqa (darolutamide).

The European Commission has created a web portal for researchers based in Ukraine as well as those who have left the country through which they can find employment, locate housing and gain recognition of their academic credentials by institutions across the EU. The ERA4Unraine portal connects more than 600 centres and 43 national portals across the union as well as countries that are not members of the EU but participate in the Horizon European research programme. The information is in English and will soon be available in Ukrainian as well.

Germany-based ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE has secured an equity investment of €33 million from two financial groups in order to advance a radiopharmaceutical for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, also known as islet cell tumours. The latest financing comes on top of an earlier €25 million investment, bringing the total sums raised by the company for product development up to €58 million.

The two newest investors are Indigenous Critical Infrastructure Fund Canada and a private equity group managed by Portland Investment Counsel Inc.

MorphoSys AG has decided to consolidate the drug discovery activities of its recent US acquisition, Constellation Pharmaceuticals, in Germany resulting in a non-cash impairment charge of €231 million. The decision, announced on 10 March, contributed to an operating loss in both the 2021 fourth quarter and full year, the company announced on 16 March.

Pharming Group NV reported declines across all financial indicators in 2021 owing to the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare activity in the US and impairments of tangible and intangible assets. At the same time, it invested in future growth by way of an in-licensing deal for a candidate gene therapy, OTL-15. It also brought leniolisib, a drug for a rare immunodeficiency disease, into late-stage development. Revenue, driven by sales of Ruconest, its lead product for the treatment of acute hereditary angioedema (HAE), was $198.9 million for the year, down by 6%.

Investor interest in microbiome-based therapies perked up in early March with the completion of a £50 million Series B round for Microbiotica Ltd, one of Europe’s leading developers of microbiome-based therapeutics. The financing round was co-led by Flerie Invest of Sweden and Tencent of China, with participation from existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, IP Group, and Seventure Partners.

Following on from the recent success of the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, Nutcracker Therapeutics Inc of the US has raised $167 million in Series C financing to improve its RNA manufacturing platform and help the pharma industry develop new RNA therapeutics. The financing round was led by ARCH Venture Partners, which also has investments in Illumina Inc and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Precirix NV, a Belgian biotech company created in 2014 as a spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, has raised €80 million in a Series B financing round to advance a pipeline of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer. The technology involves the use of antibody fragments derived from llama to transport radioisotopes to receptors on the surface of cancer cells and kill the cells by irradiation. The antibody fragments are similar to those used by Ablynx, now part of Sanofi SA, to successfully build a portfolio of products for rare diseases.