Dr. Timos Papagatsias’ Post

Atavistik Bio, a biotechnology company discovering the next generation of precision allosteric therapeutics inspired by the body's natural regulators, announced that it has raised an additional $40 million to advance its lead precision allosteric small molecule therapeutic in oncology into the clinic and to advance its earlier stage pipeline. Read more below: #funding #precisionmedicine #smallmolecule

🔹IL-18 is a potent inflammatory cytokine that induces innate and adaptive immune responses and is a powerful IFNγ amplifier. Because IL-18BP can neutralize IL-18's activity by binding with high affinity, Bright Peak Therapeutics created a variant of IL-18 resistant to IL-18BP. Additionally, PEGylation was performed to extend its half-life. 🔹Using Ajinomoto's technology, IL-18 was site-specifically conjugated to the Fc domain of Lipustobart (a clinical-stage anti-PD-1 Ab). 🔹BPT567 can 'cis-target' PD-1-positive cells. However, whether it also has a PD-1/PD-L1 blockade effect remains to be seen in future clinical data. https://lnkd.in/guM_J-Qi

LucidQuest Strategic Insights (lqventures.com) >>> Gene&Cell Therapy >> Century Therapeutics buys Clade; Eliem announces $120M PIPE and a deal: Plus, news about Leap Therapeutics, Allay Therapeutics, Harmony Biosciences, Rallybio and CSL Behring: Century Therapeutics acquires Clade: Century is purchasing the off-the-shelf cell therapy startup for $35 million upfront in cash and stock in a deal that comes after Clade laid off employees and closed its Dutch subsidiary, as Endpoints News reported in February. Clade launched with $87 million in 2021 and was founded by CRISPR Therapeutics co-founder Chad Cowan. Century also announced that it’s expanding its lead iNK cell therapy into autoimmune disease, beginning with a form of lupus called SLE, and it raised $60 million from a private placement in light of the autoimmune expansion. — Lei Lei Wu Eliem acquires Tenet, plans to advance its lead drug: The company will now focus on TNT119, an anti-CD19 antibody designed to treat autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus. In conjunction with the buyout, Eliem raised $120 million in a PIPE financing, which likely gives the company runway into 2027. Most of Eliem’s board will remain, and Tenet CEO Stephen Thomas has been named interim CEO of the newly combined company. — Max Gelman Leap Therapeutics also announces a PIPE: The oncology biotech sold approximately $40 million in shares to institutional investors including Gilead, Samsara BioCapital, 683 Capital Partners, Laurion Capital Management and Rock Springs Capital. It plans to use the proceeds to fund its lead program, an anti-DKK1 antibody that it’s studying in second-line colorectal cancer. — Lei Lei Wu Allay Therapeutics’ pain drug sails through Ph2b: The biotech said ATX101 achieved sustained post-surgical pain relief for up to four weeks in patients following knee replacement. The non-opioid drug candidate also outperformed the standard of care — bupivacaine — in durability. Allay is planning to start a separate, registrational Phase 2b test later this year. — Ayisha Sharma Harmony Biosciences nabs license for OX2R agonist: Harmony will pay $25.5 million upfront to French pharma company Bioprojet to “develop, manufacture and commercialize” TPM-1116, per a press release. If everything works out, Harmony is also on the hook for up to $357.5 million in development and sales milestones. — Max Gelman MIT-founded DeepCure raises $24M: The company, which has put together about $72 million so far, is calling the raise a “Series A-1″ round. DeepCure researchers are working to develop new small-molecule drugs and identify new targets with the help of artificial intelligence. — Max Gelman Rallybio’s non-traditional deal with J&J: Johnson & Johnson is teaming up with Rallybio, which is developing a “complementary” treatment for a rare disease affecting fetuses and… #lucidquest #genetherapy #celltherapy

Gene&Cell Therapy >> Century Therapeutics buys Clade; Eliem announces $120M PIPE and a deal: Plus, news about Leap Therapeutics, Allay Therapeutics, Harmony Biosciences, Rallybio and CSL Behring: Century Therapeutics acquires Clade: Century is purchasing the off-the-shelf cell therapy startup for $35 million upfront in cash and stock in a deal that comes after Clade laid off employees and closed its Dutch subsidiary, as Endpoints News reported in February. Clade launched with $87 million in 2021 and was founded by CRISPR Therapeutics co-founder Chad Cowan. Century also announced that it’s expanding its lead iNK cell therapy into autoimmune disease, beginning with a form of lupus called SLE, and it raised $60 million from a private placement in light of the autoimmune expansion. — Lei Lei Wu Eliem acquires Tenet, plans to advance its lead drug: The company will now focus on TNT119, an anti-CD19 antibody designed to treat autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus. In conjunction with the buyout, Eliem raised $120 million in a PIPE financing, which likely gives the company runway into 2027. Most of Eliem’s board will remain, and Tenet CEO Stephen Thomas has been named interim CEO of the newly combined company. — Max Gelman Leap Therapeutics also announces a PIPE: The oncology biotech sold approximately $40 million in shares to institutional investors including Gilead, Samsara BioCapital, 683 Capital Partners, Laurion Capital Management and Rock Springs Capital. It plans to use the proceeds to fund its lead program, an anti-DKK1 antibody that it’s studying in second-line colorectal cancer. — Lei Lei Wu Allay Therapeutics’ pain drug sails through Ph2b: The biotech said ATX101 achieved sustained post-surgical pain relief for up to four weeks in patients following knee replacement. The non-opioid drug candidate also outperformed the standard of care — bupivacaine — in durability. Allay is planning to start a separate, registrational Phase 2b test later this year. — Ayisha Sharma Harmony Biosciences nabs license for OX2R agonist: Harmony will pay $25.5 million upfront to French pharma company Bioprojet to “develop, manufacture and commercialize” TPM-1116, per a press release. If everything works out, Harmony is also on the hook for up to $357.5 million in development and sales milestones. — Max Gelman MIT-founded DeepCure raises $24M: The company, which has put together about $72 million so far, is calling the raise a “Series A-1″ round. DeepCure researchers are working to develop new small-molecule drugs and identify new targets with the help of artificial intelligence. — Max Gelman Rallybio’s non-traditional deal with J&J: Johnson & Johnson is teaming up with Rallybio, which is developing a “complementary” treatment for a rare disease affecting fetuses and newborns. In addition to a $6.6 million equity… #lucidquest #genetherapy #celltherapy

Great news from infinitas capital's and Korify Capital's portfolio company Booster Therapeutics emerging from stealth with a $15m seed financing round led by Apollo Health Ventures and Novo Holdings. Booster Therapeutics is a biotechnology company working on a new class of proteasome activator medicines to treat neurodegenerative and other diseases. Booster’s small molecule therapeutics, discovered through the DGRADX™ platform, are designed to directly boost the activity of 20S proteasomes to restore the body’s ability to clear disease-causing proteins. The company is developing a multi-disease pipeline, with an initial focus on neurodegenerative diseases associated with impaired proteasome function such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Find out more in Booster’s press release here: https://lnkd.in/eR8yb5Ev #venturecapital #biotech #biotechinnovation

In business news, Arda Therapeutics, a pioneer in targeted cell depletion therapies for chronic diseases, announced the successful completion of a $43 million Series A financing round. The round was led by existing investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z Bio + Health), with participation from Two Sigma Ventures, RV Invest, Eli Lilly and Company, GV, Biovision Ventures, Valhalla Ventures, Indicator Ventures, Alumni Ventures, LifeLink Ventures, Mana Ventures, Gaingels and ExitFund. Arda’s sophisticated single-cell-based discovery engine identifies the specific pathogenic cells responsible for disease and their surface markers with unprecedented precision. This approach enables the development of targeted biologics that selectively eliminate harmful cells while preserving healthy tissue, leading to significantly greater efficacy and fewer side effects compared to conventional treatments. Arda’s platform has broad applicability across a wide range of diseases, including fibrotic conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis, as well as autoimmune and metabolic disorders. https://lnkd.in/eCb_fNzv

Join us tomorrow at the 2nd Oligonucleotide Manufacturing Symposium, featuring Technical Director Adrian La Porta. The event will take place at the CPI Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Glasgow, where key stakeholders from the pharmaceutical sector will gather to discuss emerging process technologies in oligonucleotide therapeutics. These innovative DNA or RNA fragments are transforming the treatment of diseases by modulating protein expression through various mechanisms. The symposium will focus on developing and scaling these processes to manufacture therapies effectively. These advances have the potential to address a broad range of diseases, from cancer to Alzheimer’s, paving the way for new treatments for conditions currently deemed untreatable and improving therapies for widespread illnesses like heart disease. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eWHKy2kC #BrydenWood #OligonucleotideSymposium #PharmaceuticalInnovation #pharma

AltruBio Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in San Francisco, CA, has raised $225 million in a Series B funding round. The financing was led by BVF Partners LP, with participation from new investors RA Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management, Soleus Capital, and existing investors aMoon Fund and Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing, among others. This significant influx of capital will enable AltruBio to advance the clinical development of its lead product candidate, ALTB-268, an immune checkpoint enhancer (ICE) PSGL-1 agonist antibody. Specifically, the funds will support ongoing and planned Phase 2 clinical trials evaluating ALTB-268 as a potential treatment for ulcerative colitis (UC), a form of inflammatory bowel disease. AltruBio aims to leverage this financing to further its pipeline of immunotherapies. https://lnkd.in/gmhpkapq

Multiplex Genome Editing Eliminates the Warburg Effect Without Impacting Growth Rate in Mammalian Cells The Warburg effect is ubiquitous in proliferative mammalian cells, including cancer cells, but poses challenges for biopharmaceutical production, as lactate accumulation inhibits cell growth and protein production. Previous efforts to eliminate lactate production via knockout have failed in mammalian bioprocessing since lactate dehydrogenase has proven essential. However, here we eliminated the Warburg effect in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and HEK293 cells by simultaneously knocking out lactate dehydrogenase and regulators involved in a negative feedback loop that typically inhibits pyruvate conversion to acetyl-CoA. In contrast to long-standing assumptions about the role of aerobic glycolysis, Warburg-null cells maintain wildtype growth rate while producing negligible lactate. https://lnkd.in/gc-z3P8K #aspenalert #biotech #bioprocess

LucidQuest Strategic Insights (lqventures.com) >>> Gene&Cell Therapy >> Roche makes ADC deal with China's MediLink Therapeutics for $50M upfront: Antibody-drug conjugates, one of the creams of the crop in 2023 biopharma dealmaking, are riding into 2024 on a strong note as Roche pays $50 million upfront to collaborate with a biotech in China, where many of the ADC deals have been made recently. The Swiss Big Pharma is pairing up with Suzhou-based MediLink Therapeutics, which teamed with BioNTech last fall for $70 million upfront and with Zai Lab last April for an undisclosed amount. In the new deal, Roche’s China Innovation Center will work with MediLink (also known as Suzhou Yilian Biopharmaceutical) on the c-Met-targeted ADC candidate dubbed YL211. They’ll work together on Phase I studies and then Roche will handle all other development and marketing globally, the companies said Tuesday. The tie-up starts with $50 million in upfront and near-term payments and could grow to nearly $1 billion over time, plus tiered royalties. The partners will test YL211, which is currently in the “clinical application stage,” in solid tumors, MediLink said. The biotech’s candidate goes after c-Met, part of the receptor tyrosine kinase family, which is also targeted by ADCs like AbbVie’s Teliso-V, for which the Big Pharma plans to request accelerated approval. You get an ADC, you get an ADC: Phar­mas bite on on­col­o­gy’s buzzi­est class Tuesday’s move comes amid a flurry of deals in the ADC space, with the most recent high-profile bid coming from AbbVie’s $10.1 billion acquisition of ImmunoGen, which is expected to close in the middle of this year. GSK, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer, among others, all made multiple ADC splashes last year as they try to carve their place in the hottest area of oncology R&D, which seeks to create more powerful, but more precise, versions of chemotherapy. Although Roche markets two ADCs — Kadcyla for breast cancer and Polivy for hematology — its pipeline is relatively devoid of ADC candidates. The pharma giant has been busy inking acquisitions in the inflammatory and cardiometabolic spaces in recent months with its purchases of Telavant and Carmot. The latest deal marks a small departure from Roche’s previous stance on ADCs. In June 2022, then-CEO Severin Schwan told journalists that Roche had “rather limited interest” in the field, noting it was a packed space already, Reuters reported at the time. Thomas Schinecker replaced Schwan last year and presented an updated R&D road map last September, when the company said it was “exploring different modalities,” including ADCs, allogeneic CAR-T and other treatment types. Charlie Fuchs But Charlie Fuchs, Roche and Genentech’s global head of product development for oncology and hematology, noted that what makes ADCs “decidedly interesting” is that a… #lucidquest #genetherapy #celltherapy