Drug Discovery

FDA grants breakthrough therapy status for Otsuka’s IgAN drug

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded breakthrough therapy designation for Otsuka Pharmaceutical's sibeprenlimab, an investigational drug for treating immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN; Berger’s disease).

Atara submits IND application to FDA for CAR T-cell therapy

Atara Biotherapeutics has submitted an investigational new drug (IND) application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy ATA3219 for treating lupus nephritis.

ProfoundBio secures $112m to advance ADC portfolio for cancer

Clinical-stage biotechnology company ProfoundBio has secured $112m in a Series B financing round to advance its clinical-stage antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) pipeline for cancer treatment.

Precision receives payments from TG Therapeutics for azer-cel

Precision BioSciences has received upfront cash payment and equity investment totalling $17.5m from TG Therapeutics for an exclusive licence to develop Azercabtagene Zapreleucel (azer-cel).

Aizon secures funds to accelerate development pipeline

Aizon, an artificial intelligence (AI) Software as a Service (SaaS) provider for pharmaceutical manufacturing operations, has secured $20m in Series C funding to expedite its development pipeline.

Samsung Biologics and LegoChem enter ADC development deal

Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Samsung Biologics has entered into a strategic partnership with LegoChem Biosciences to advance antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) programmes aimed at treating solid tumours.

NIH grants $9m for nicotine cessation drug development

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) unit National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has granted an award of $9m for researchers to advance drug, SBP-9330, to treat nicotine addiction.

Exicure and Bluejay sign hepatitis treatment development deal

Exicure and Bluejay Therapeutics have reached a patent licencing agreement for the development of cavrotolimod as a potential hepatitis treatment.

Oricell’s OriCAR-017 application secures FDA IND clearance

Oricell Therapeutics has announced the clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for OriCAR-017, a new CAR-T cell therapy targeting GPRC5D, for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (R/R MM).