Company News

Artios Pharma Ltd, a UK clinical-stage company with products to kill cancer cells by blocking their ability to repair damaged DNA, has raised $115 million in an oversubscribed Series D financing. The round was co led by founding investor SV Health Investors and new investor RA Capital Management. The funds will be used to advance two small molecule drugs against large cancers. The first, alnodesertib, is an inhibitor of the ATR protein which is involved in DNA repair, and the second is ART6043, an inhibitor of the DNA repair enzyme DNA polymerase theta (Pol theta).

BC Platforms AG, one of the healthcare industry’s largest data management and analytics companies, has launched a new technology platform that features artificial intelligence as its core component. This comes at a time when AI is being applied across drug discovery in order to help researchers analyse large datasets and identify potential drug targets. The Switzerland-based company says that its new technology takes AI one step further by linking  drug discovery and development data to real-world evidence. 

A three-year project to develop new strategies for tackling resistance to antibiotics will start in 2026, GSK Plc announced on 18 November. The project will receive £45 million from GSK to execute six projects which have been identified by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, leaders of the Fleming Initiative in the UK. The funding will support an estimated 50 UK scientific and academic jobs focusing exclusively on antimicrobial resistance.

Switzerland-based Novartis announced plans on 19 November to build a new manufacturing hub in North Carolina, US, which is part of a previously announced $23 billion investment in the country over the next five years. The outlays will feature new facilities in Durham to manufacture biologics and sterile packaging; a site in Morrisville to produce solid dosage tablets and capsules; and an expansion of an existing site in Durham to support the sterile filling of biologics into syringes and vials.

A trial for adults with major depressive disorder failed to significantly reduce the severity of the disorder compared with a placebo, according to the sponsor Neurocrine Biosciences Inc of San Diego, US. The Phase 2 study enrolled 73 adults with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and an inadequate response to at least one antidepressant in their regular treatment paradigm. The product, NBI-1070770, is a negative allosteric modulator of a subunit of a receptor that plays a role in the working memory. Participants received the drug or a placebo for four weeks.

Germany-based biotech InflaRx NV, has published positive Phase 2a data for a new small molecule drug for the treatment of two skin diseases: hidradenitis suppurativa and chronic spontaneous urticaria. The drug, INF904, is an inhibitor of the C5a receptor which modulates the body’s inflammatory responses. In a basket study of patients with the two diseases, the drug achieved rapid disease control. In the case of hidradenitis suppurativa this involved decreases in measures of nervous system changes.

An antibody-drug conjugate, made with a toxic mushroom rather than chemotherapy, has shown promising results in a Phase 1/2a trial in patients with multiple myeloma. The drug, HDP-101 (pamlectabart tismanitin), is being developed by Heidelberg Pharma AG of Germany. In October it received a ‘fast track’ designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for its potential as a treatment for severely ill and heavily pretreated patients. 

A novel antibody that has shown it can delay the onset of Type 1 diabetes received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency on 14 November. Teizeild (teplizumab) has been developed for the most advanced stage of disease onset when most pancreatic beta cells have been destroyed, insulin production is down, and blood sugar levels are rising. The same product, known as Tzield, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2022.

A candidate radio-diagnostic has received ‘fast track’ designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for its protential use in combination with a therapeutic to identify and treat clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. ITM-94 is a radiolabeled gallium 68 imaging agent which is in a Phase 1/2 trial in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumours. It is being developed with ITM-91, an investigational radioparmaceutical. The combination is known as a theranostic.

A gene therapy for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, whose development was supported by the Italian non-profit organisation, Fondazione Telethon ETS, received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency on 14 November. Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that keeps a child’s immune system from functionally normally. It mainly affects young boys. The treatment, Waskyra (etuvetidigene autotemcel) is the first gene therapy to be evaluated for this disease.