A prospective therapy for birch allergy failed to achieve the primary endpoint in a Phase 3 multi-center trial, according to the developer Allergy Therapeutics Plc. The therapy, B301, is a short-course treatment for birch-pollen induced seasonal allergic rhinitis.
It failed to show statistical significance relative to placebo. The safety and tolerability profile of the therapy were positive.
Record sums were invested in biotech companies in 2018 – especially in those at the early stage of development. According to the US industry association BIO, some $12.4 billion in venture capital was raised in the US for biotech, double the amount generated in 2017, while $600 million was raised in Europe.
Two Phase 3 trials of an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease were stopped for futility by Biogen Inc and Eisai Co Ltd on 21 March. However a day later, Eisai announced the start of a new Phase 3 programme for another Alzheimer’s treatment which is being developing with Biogen. In both cases the drugs are monoclonal antibodies designed to treat patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease. They apparently differ in the way they target amyloid-beta which are protein fragments in the brain, thought to contribute to neurodegeneration.
Merck KGaA and its partner Pfizer Inc have stopped a Phase 3 trial of a new drug combination for treatment-naïve patients with locally advanced or metastatic ovarian cancer. The trial was evaluating the immunotherapy avelumab in combination with chemotherapy, followed by maintenance therapy consisting of avelumab in combination with talazoparib, a poly ADP-ribose-polymerase (PARP) inhibitor.
The German biotech Probiodrug AG and a US-based cooperative have received a $15 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test Probiodrug’s small molecule drug in patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.
The grant will help finance a Phase 2b study of the drug PQ912 which inhibits glutaminyl cyclase, an enzyme that triggers the production of a peptide which is a constituent of Alzheimer’s disease plaques. The grant is expected to be dispersed over four years.
MolMed SpA and Genenta Science SRL, both of Italy, have renewed and extended an oncology collaboration with a view to starting trials of a candidate drug that could treat both haematologic malignancies and solid tumours. Genenta has developed an ex-vivo immune-gene transfer technology to enable the targeting of immunomodulatory molecules to tumour-infiltrating monocytes and macrophages. The goal is to deliver an immunomodulatory molecule into the tumour microenvironment triggering an immune response against multiple tumour antigens.
A male patient who was diagnosed with HIV infection in 2003 has experienced a remission from his disease after a haematopoietic stem cell transplant. The stem cell transplant was undertaken in order to treat a cancer. At the time the patient was on also on antiretroviral therapy to treat his HIV. The patient remained on antiretroviral drug therapy for 16 months after the transplant at which point the physicians stopped the drug therapy. Remarkably, the patient remained free of HIV.
Sangamo Therapeutics Inc is readying a second generation of its zinc finger nuclease technology to use in an in vivo genome editing trial later this year. This is expected to provide further support for the company’s strategy of using engineered nucleases to correct DNA in patients with Hunter syndrome and other genetic diseases. Hunter syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that can lead to tissue and organ damage.
Patients with pancreatic cancer, who were treated with Lynparza during a Phase 3 clinical trial, have shown a statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful improvement in progression-free survival, according to AstraZeneca Plc. The drug’s benefit, reported on 26 February, is the first for a PARP inhibitor in pancreatic cancer, one of the most difficult-to-treat cancers.
A gene therapy intended as a one-time treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been successfully administered to a patient in the UK, marking the start of one of the first clinical trials of its kind. The therapy consists of a recombinant non-replicating adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector encoding a human complement factor.