News

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new bispecific antibody for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer whose tumours have a specific genetic mutation. Rybrevant (amivantamab) was authorised for patients with lung cancers which have an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion mutation.

Numab Therapeutics AG has raised CHF 100 million ($111.48 million) from a Series C financing round, enabling it to accelerate development of its lead antibody programme for multiple cancer indications. The latest financing was co-led by new investors Novo Holdings and HBM Partners. It comes a little over a year after Numab completed a Series B round for CHF 22 million.

Dyno Therapeutics Inc, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, has raised $100 million in a Series A financing round to expand its technology platform for designing adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for gene therapies. The company is using artificial intelligence to improve the performance of capsids, the cell-targeting protein shells of AAV vectors.

Novo Nordisk A/S ended the first quarter with sales of DKK 33.8 billion ($5.56 billion), unchanged from a year earlier. But turnover is expected to increase by 2% to 6% for the year as a whole on stronger demand for the company’s non-insulin products for diabetes. Sales of the company’s glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medicines, which reduce blood glucose by mimicking the actions of a natural hormone, rose by 13% in the quarter. This compared with a decline of 7% for the company’s traditional insulins.

Galapagos NV has taken further steps to consolidate its portfolio following the decision, taken with partner Gilead Sciences Inc in late 2020, not to pursue a US marketing authorisation for the rheumatoid arthritis drug Jyseleca (filgotinib). As a consequence, it is refocusing its research efforts on inflammation, fibrosis and kidney diseases. It is discontinuing research in metabolic diseases and in osteoarthritis.

MiNA Therapeutics Ltd has entered into a research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co to develop candidate drugs using technology for restoring normal cell function by activating gene expression. MiNA’s small activating RNA (saRNA) technology will be used to research up to five drug targets selected by Lilly.

Evotec SE booked revenue of €133.1 million in the first quarter, up by 11% from a year earlier, as its service offering to pharma and biotech companies continued to expand both in quantity and scope. Concurrent with this expansion, spending on both R&D and administration rose by 23% in the quarter. This, plus the winding down of payments from Sanofi SA relating to a multi-year collaboration, left operating profit at €6.8 million, down from €16.1 million a year earlier.

The French vaccine company Valneva SE has raised $107.6 million from an initial public offering of shares on the US Nasdaq market, enabling it to accelerate development of candidate vaccines to prevent Covid-19 as well as Lyme disease. The company also has a prophylactic vaccine in development against the chikungunya virus, which is prevalent in Africa, Asia and India. The company’s American Depositary Shares began trading on Nasdaq on 6 May.

Valneva is also listed on Euronext Paris.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc and its US partner Vir Biotechnology Inc have submitted a candidate antibody for patients at risk of severe Covid-19 disease to the European Medicines Agency for a rolling review. A rolling review is a procedure by which a regulator examines data for a prospective drug as it becomes available, rather than waiting until all clinical trials are complete. This enables medicines that are important to public health to be reviewed more quickly.

A topical treatment for diabetic macular oedema is poised to enter Phase 3 development following the closing of a $57 million Series C financing round for the developer, Oculis SA of Switzerland. The treatment, OCS-01, is an eye drop formulation of dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, which if approved, would be the first topical treatment for a retinal oedema.