News

LAVA Therapeutics BV, a four-year old company investigating bispecific antibodies directed against gamma-delta T cells, has raised $83 million to bring its programmes into clinical development for cancer. The oversubscribed Series C financing round was co-led by Novo Ventures, the venture arm of Novo Holdings, and Sanofi Ventures. Nanna Lüneborg, a partner at Novo Ventures, will join the company’s board of directors.

AstraZeneca Plc has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to acquire a preclinical small molecule programme from Dogma Therapeutics Inc for the potential treatment of dyslipidaemia, a disorder characterised by abnormal amounts of lipids in the blood. The small molecule inhibits PCSK9, a protein that regulates levels of low-density lipoproteins. High levels of these lipoproteins can lead to a build-up of cholesterol in the arteries, a risk for cardiovascular disease.

Gilead Sciences Inc is to spend $21 billion to expand its oncology portfolio with the acquisition of Immunomedics Inc of Morris Plains, New Jersey, US. Immunomedics has a marketed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for triple-negative breast cancer which is said to have potential in other cancer indications both as a monotherapy and in combination with other treatments. The takeover was announced on 13 September after being unanimously approved by the boards of both companies. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford University have resumed clinical trials in the UK for their candidate Covid-19 vaccine following a pause earlier this month triggered by an adverse event. The event led to a voluntary stoppage of vaccination across all global trials to allow for a review of safety data by independent committees and international regulators.

On 12 September, AstraZeneca and Oxford announced that the UK regulator had ruled that it was safe to continue trials in the UK. Further details about the case were not disclosed.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE are seeking regulatory approval to expand the enrolment of their Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine trial to include 44,000 participants, up from 30,000 at present. An application to amend the trial protocol has been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration, the companies announced on 12 September.

The prospective vaccine, BNT162b2, is a single nucleoside-modified messenger RNA that encodes an optimised SARS-CoV-2 full length spike glycoprotein which is the target of virus neutralising antibodies.

MiNA Therapeutics Ltd, which is developing drugs based on small activating RNA molecules, has raised £23 million in a Series A financing round to advance the clinical development of its lead product as a combination treatment for cancer. The financing was led by the Israeli venture capital fund aMoon, with participation from existing investors.

Nestle Health Science is to take full ownership of the food allergy company Aimmune Therapeutics Inc in an all-cash transaction that values the company at $2.6 billion. Nestle already owns 25.6% of Aimmune and will acquire the remaining equity for $34.50 per share, representing a 174% premium to the company’s closing share price on Nasdaq on 28 August.

ABX464, a small molecule drug being investigated for ulcerative colitis, generated positive data in patients who completed a second year of treatment, the developer Abivax SA announced on 2 September. The Phase 2a maintenance study showed that 69% of patients were in clinical remission and 94% benefited from a clinical response at the end of the second year. Twenty-two patients were initially enrolled in the study in which ABX464 was administered once daily at a dose of 50 mg.

A Phase 3 trial of Farxiga (dapagliflozin) has shown a reduction in the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular or renal death in patients with chronic kidney disease, according to the developer AstraZeneca Plc.  The trial results were presented on 30 August at a virtual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. Farxiga is a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor which has been approved to treat Type 2 diabetes and heart failure.

A Phase 3 trial of a prospective triple combination therapy for advanced melanoma failed to meet its primary endpoint of progression free survival, Novartis announced on 22 August. The trial was testing the experimental checkpoint antibody spartalizumab in combination with Tafinlar (dabrafenib) and Mekinist (trametinib), both approved products, in patients with melanoma with a BRAF V600 mutation.