Inovio Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: INO) reported recent preclinical data summaries for their COVID-19 DNA vaccine called INO-4800 demonstrating promising information. Namely, the sponsor’s tests demonstrated robust neutralizing antibody and T cell immune responses...
Pharma Watch
Category
Ansun Biopharma’s DAS181 Shows Promise in COVID-19 Patients with Respiratory Challenges
Recently, the Wall Street Journal introduced a small, 25-person San Diego-based biotech called Ansun Biophrma (Ansun) reporting on recent success of a drug that cleared COVID-19 symptoms in a small study involving four Chinese patients. With a strong background in...
‘Unprecedented Times call for Bold Moves’ as Competitive Plasma Firms Unite to Battle COVID-19
CSL Behring and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company have initiated an alliance bringing together the world’s leading plasma companies to focus on developing and delivering hyperimmune immunoglobulin to help fight the global war on COVID-19. Led by Australian and American...
Acceleration of First-Patient-First-Visit Study Milestone as Roche Study Investigating Tocilizumab in COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients Enrolls Patients in Spain
Roche recently announce the launch of a global study in collaboration with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Actemra/RoActemra (tocilizumab) plus standard of care in hospitalized adult...
Regeneron Leverages its Technology Platform, Process and People in the Hopes of Having A COVID-19 Therapy in Trials by Summer
Regeneron and its “VELOCISUITE®” platform was used to develop a treatment for Ebola (REGN-EB3), currently used by the Congolese government to fight that horrific virus. The New York State-based venture has, like many biopharma companies, dedicated a full force...
University of Laval Partner Medicago In Hot Pursuit COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate in Canada
Quebec-City-based Medicago, a subsidiary to Japan-based Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, reports a breakthrough in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, making a claim that it has developed a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that could begin human testing as early as this...
Santen and TRACON Discontinue Development of DE-122 for Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Santen and TRACON Pharmaceuticals announced the companies will discontinue the development of DE-122 for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) following the review of top-line data from the Phase 2a AVANTE clinical study. The study did not reach...
FDA Places Partial Clinical Hold on Unum Therapeutics Phase I Trial for non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Due to Safety Concern
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Unum Therapeutics disclosed a verbal notification was received from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that it had placed a partial clinical hold on the Phase 1 trial (ATTCK-20-03) of Unum’s...
Opdivo Plus Yervoy Combination Granted Accelerated Approval by FDA for Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Bristol-Myers Squibb announced the U.S. FDA has granted accelerated approval to Opdivo (nivolumab) 1 mg/kg plus Yervoy (ipilimumab) 3 mg/kg (injections for intravenous use) to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients who have been previously treated with...
FDA Approves Allergan’s Durysta Implant to Treat Glaucoma
Allergan announced the U.S. FDA has approved Durysta (bimatoprost implant) 10 mcg for intracameral administration. Durysta is the first intracameral, biodegradable sustained-release implant indicated to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle...
Recordati and Novartis Announce FDA Approval of Isturisa for Cushing’s Disease
Recordati announced the U.S. FDA has approved Isturisa (osilodrostat) for the treatment of adults with Cushing’s disease for whom pituitary surgery is not an option or has not been curative. Recordati expects Istursia to...
Janssen Announces U.S. FDA Has Granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to JNJ-6372 for Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Janssen announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted JNJ-6372 Breakthrough Therapy Designation for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) Exon 20 insertion mutations where the disease has progressed...
The World’s First NASH Drug Approved in India: Zydus Cadila’s Saroglitazar
A drug maker in India, Zydus Cadila, has become the first pharma company worldwide to secure a regulatory agency greenlight for a non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) therapy (Saroglitazar) as the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the drug. TrialSite...
EpicentRx Receives FDA Clearance of IND for Adenovirus Program AIM-001
EpicentRx announced that the U.S. FDA has cleared the investigational new drug (IND) application for AIM-001, an oncolytic adenovirus that is enhanced with a TGF-β (beta) trap transgene. EpicentRx plans to begin clinical trials with AIM-001 this year. Cancer cells...
Genentech’s Esbriet Granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Unclassifiable Interstitial Lung Disease
Genentech announced that the U.S. FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to Esbriet (pirfenidone) for adults with unclassifiable interstitial lung disease (uILD). The designation is based on results from a Phase II trial, which suggested Esbriet slowed...
Prevail Therapeutics Receives IND Approval for Gene Therapy in Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia with GRN Mutation
Prevail Therapeutics announced that the U.S. FDA has approved an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its experimental gene therapy program, PR006, for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia patients with GRN mutation (FTD-GRN). With this approval, the...
Mereo BioPharma Completes Type B End-of-Phase 2 Meeting with FDA and Agrees on Pivotal Phase 3 Pediatric Study Design for Setrusumab in Osteogenesis Imperfecta
Mereo Biopharma announced the successful completion of a Type B End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the U.S. FDA to discuss the development of setrusumab, an anti-sclerostin antibody, for the treatment of children and adolescents with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). During the...
Sanofi Announces FDA Approval of Sarclisa for Relapsed Refractory Multiple Myeloma
Sanofi announced the U.S. FDA has approved Sarclisa (isatuximab-irfc) in combination with pomalidomide and dexamethasone (pom-dex) for the treatment of adults with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) who have received at least two prior therapies...
Y-mAbs Concludes Successful Type B Pre-Biologics License Application Meeting with FDA for Omburtamab
Y-mAbs Therapeutics announced the completion of a positive Type B Pre-Biologics License Application (Pre-BLA) meeting with the U.S. FDA regarding a potential pathway for FDA approval of omburtamab for the treatment of patients with CNS/leptomeningeal metastases from...
Harbour BioMed Receives U.S. FDA IND Approval for Phase 2 Trial and Orphan Drug Designation for Anti-PD-L1 Monoclonal Antibody, HBM9167
Harbour BioMed announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a Phase 2 clinical trial of HBM9167, its humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody targeting programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), for the...