Scott Clarke, Ambagon Therapeutics CEO
The saying goes necessity is the mother of invention — and few areas of drug development are in greater need than oncology. A new startup is now repurposing promising technology to tackle the hardest-to-drug proteins, and a suite of big-name backers are buying in.
Ambagon Therapeutics launched Friday with an $85 million A round and a world-class group of researcher-founders building what are known as ‘molecular glues’ to crack the code on a class of elusive cellular proteins, the biotech said.
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Their Staying Power Lies in their Patient-Centricity
Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) were traditionally utilized in an isolated fashion prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. To continue their research within the constraints of the pandemic, sponsors and clinical investigators pivoted to a decentralized model out of necessity. At the onset, regulatory agencies offered some guidance on the digital approaches that are acceptable to ensure DCT approaches are applied in a way that maintains patient safety, as well as data quality and integrity.
Exscientia CEO Andrew Hopkins and Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson
Drug R&D has for years had an abysmal track record of success, with the vast majority of drug candidates never making it to market. The promise of AI to shorten the discovery time for new drugs and up their chances of success has more big drugmakers buying in — and Sanofi is the latest.
Sanofi will pay $100 million upfront with a potential $5.2 billion in downstream milestones for access to up to 15 small molecule drugs from Exscientia, a red-hot UK deep learning company at the forefront of the so-called ‘AI-discovered’ drug R&D movement, the partners said Friday.
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A district court in Texas will likely tie up the FDA’s FOIA office for months, as the court ruled late Thursday that the agency must release all documents related to its review of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine.
The order from district judge Mark Pittman, handed down late Thursday, notes that while the Court recognizes the ‘unduly burdensome’ challenges that this FOIA request may present to the FDA, there also ‘may not be’ a more important issue at the FDA right now than the pandemic, the Pfizer vaccine, getting every American vaccinated, and making sure to the American public that the process was not rushed.
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Eric Easom, CEO of AN2 Therapeutics
After starting up with a $12 million Series A in 2019, California outfit AN2 Therapeutics issued its first press release in over 2 years — and its second ever: The ultra-quiet biotech has raised an $80 million Series B and added a pair of directors to boot.
The biotech is headed by several leaders from Anacor, which was bought out by Pfizer in 2016 for about $5.2 billion. Eric Easom, former head of Anacor’s R&D on neglected diseases, is co-founder and CEO. Other Anacor vets include AN2’s chief development officer, CFO and head of biology.
New year, same Fujifilm Diosynth.
The CDMO giant hit the ground running at full speed this year, announcing it will expand its BioProcess Innovation Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. The move will double its existing laboratory footprint in the Tar Heel State, and add another 145 skilled jobs to the site by 2024. Another 89,000 square feet will be added, which will allow for a more robust commercial process.
Aligos Therapeutics took a beating Thursday after reporting it is stopping development on its lead program for chronic hepatitis B.
The biotech’s shares $ALGS closed down 57% and fell into penny stock territory Thursday, following a morning press release saying Aligos’ ALG-010133 program did not prove efficacious at the dose tested in a Phase I study. Additionally, the company concluded that higher doses were also unlikely to be effective, and ultimately decided to axe the candidate altogether.
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Justin Klee (L) and Josh Cohen (Amylyx)
ALS drug developer Amylyx got off its IPO on Friday, raising $190 million after pricing its stock at the midrange of the offering and bumping up the offering by 1.2 million shares.
Coming out at $19 a share, the biotech $AMLX is in a small group of drug developers that is testing some very choppy waters on Nasdaq at the beginning of 2022. Last year’s offerings are generally underwater on offering price as investors grew increasingly disenchanted with a sector that has grown significantly in recent years — with a stint in the red-hot zone in 2020.
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Roger Perlmutter, Eikon CEO
Roger Perlmutter hasn’t wasted any time since announcing his supposed retirement from Merck in October 2020. After leaving his perch as one of the most successful R&D chiefs in Big Pharma, he’s now snatching a cool half-billion dollars to develop ‘a battery of innovative tools’ for drug discovery at the young startup Eikon Therapeutics.
Eikon closed on a $517.8 million Series B round on Thursday morning, bringing the Hayward, CA-based company’s total raise to more than $668 million.
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Cytokinetics stumbled a bit with its closely watched lead heart drug over the last year or so, losing two pharma partners after missing a key secondary endpoint in a Phase III study. But things are looking up in 2022, as Royalty Pharma is reaching a little deeper into its wallet to bolster that program and another heart candidate.
Royalty Pharma has agreed to lend up to $300 million to support the potential commercialization of Cytokinetics’ lead candidate, omecamtiv mecarbil, and development of its other heart program, aficamten. The cash will come in five tranches, including an initial tranche of $50 million upon closing and four others upon certain regulatory and clinical milestones. Each tranche has an interest-free and payment-free period of six calendar quarters, followed by 34 calendar quarters of installment re-payments totaling 1.9 times the amount drawn.
https://endpts.com/a-new-startup-thinks-its-found-a-key-to-drugging-disordered-proteins-and-it-has-plenty-of-cash-to-get-started
