Research & Development

Rallybio raises $145m in Series B round for developing rare disease drug candidates

Rallybio, a biopharma company based in Connecticut, has raised $145m in a Series B financing round led by Pivotal bioVenture Partners, for developing therapies for severe and rare disorders.

Boehringer Ingelheim collaborates with CDR-Life to develop antibody fragment-based therapeutics for geographic atrophy

Boehringer Ingelheim and CDR-Life announced they have entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement to research and develop antibody fragment-based therapeutics for geographic atrophy (GA).

Moderna gets FDA fast track status for mRNA vaccine against novel coronavirus

Moderna has secured fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its mRNA-1273, the mRNA vaccine candidate against the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Acer Therapeutics, NCATS to develop emetine as treatment for Covid-19

Acer Therapeutics has joined forces with the US National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to develop emetine hydrochloride as a potential treatment for Covid-19 patients.

JCyte signs ex-US licensing deal with Santen for retinal disease therapy

JCyte has signed an ex-US licensing deal with Japanese ophthalmic company Santen Pharmaceutical worth up to $252m to develop and commercialise its investigational jCell therapy for a rare genetic eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa.

Certara and DMTC announce research collaboration to study preventative use of chloroquine in health care workers at high risk for Covid-19

Certara, the global leader in model-informed drug development, and DMTC (formerly the Defence Materials Technology Centre) Ltd, which works to enhance Australia’s defense and medical countermeasure capabilities, have entered into a research collaboration to evaluate the preventative use of chloroquine in health care workers at risk of infection from the novel coronavirus strain that causes Covid-19.

ZYUS, VIDO-InterVac collaborate to develop plant-based vaccine for Covid-19 disease

ZYUS Life Sciences has collaborated with University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) for the development of a plant-based vaccine for Covid-19 disease.

Twist Bioscience identifies competitive antibodies for SARS-CoV-2

Twist Bioscience reported it has identified competitive antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which could potentially be used for diagnostic tests or therapeutic treatments. Twist’s unique monoclonal antibody candidates bind with high affinity to the receptor binding domain (RBD) on the S1 spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 viral molecules.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics to apply allogeneic dendritic cell therapy programme to Covid-19 vaccine development

Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs, announced that it has applied for grant funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support the use of VAC, Lineage’s allogeneic dendritic cell therapy, toward the development of a potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19.