News

Within a month of joining forces with the University of Oxford to develop a candidate vaccine for COVID-19, AstraZeneca Plc has secured manufacturing capacity to produce one billion doses of the prospective treatment as well as financial support of up to $1 billion from an agency of the US government.

The anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent (dupilumab) has generated positive data in a pivotal trial of patients with eosinophilic esophagitis, a chronic, allergic inflammatory disease of the esophagus. Part A of the Phase 3 trial, which enrolled patients 12 years and older, demonstrated significant clinical and anatomic improvements, including the ability to swallow, the developers Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc announced on 23 May.

Roche has expanded its diagnostic capabilities with the acquisition of Seattle, US-based Stratos Genomics Inc, an early-stage sequencing technology company. The deal was announced on 22 May but financial details were not disclosed.

Moderna Inc was set to raise gross proceeds of about $1.34 billion from a public share offering that was launched hours after the company reported positive interim data from a Phase 1 study of its messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for COVID-19. The company is issuing 17.6 million shares at a price of $76 per share. The offering is expected to close on 21 May.

Abivax SA is to receive €36 million in non-dilutive funding from Bpifrance, the investment bank of the French state, to conduct a Phase 2b/3 study of its anti-inflammatory drug ABX464 in high-risk patients with COVID-19. The randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial will recruit 1,034 elderly or high-risk patients at sites in France and elsewhere in Europe.

Switzerland-based ADC Therapeutics SA has returned to the US stock market to launch an initial public offering of its shares after cancelling a proposed offering in October 2019. The latest offering was expected to close on 19 May and indications were that it would raise a gross $232.7 million. The company is issuing 12.2 million shares at a price of $19 per share on the New York Stock Exchange. The Swiss company had prepared an IPO in 2019 but cancelled the event owing to adverse market conditions.

European investors, including INKEF Capital and the Dementia Discovery Fund, have joined a large syndicate of other institutions to raise $42 million in Series A money for QurAlis Corp of Cambridge, US enabling it to progress new therapies in neurodegeneration. Besides INKEF and Dementia Discovery, the round was led by LS Polaris Innovation Fund and Mission BioCapital.

Evotec SE moved into gene therapy in the 2020 first quarter as part of a strategy to broaden its drug discovery offering to third parties, which include some of the largest pharmaceutical concerns. Explaining the move in a call with analysts on 14 May, Werner Lanthaler, the chief executive, said that companies using its services should have an “unbiased approach” in deciding whether to use small molecules, biologics, or indeed, gene therapy in developing a new medicine.

Netherlands-based Kiadis Pharma NV has raised €17 million in two private share placements enabling the cell therapy company to advance products for patients with both liquid and solid tumours. On 6 May, not long after the financing completed, the company received notice from US Food and Drug Administration that it could proceed with a Phase 2 study of its lead product – an adjunctive cell therapy for blood cancer patients undergoing a haploidentical haematopoietic stem cell transplant.

A Phase 3 trial of the small molecule drug elafibranor failed to meet its primary endpoint in adults with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the developer Genfit SA announced on 11 May. The trial was attempting to show a resolution of NASH without a worsening of fibrosis. The response rate among the 717 patients who were tested was 19.2% for those in the elafibranor group compared with 14.7% for patients on a placebo.