The Friday Five newsletter will focus on the top five - deals, pipeline, funding, and news of the week. The complete list is available here: Industry Updates

🤝Deals and Collaborations

1️⃣ MGC Pharmaceuticals enters partnership with Sciensus Rare to distribute cannabinoids to treat refractory epilepsy, dementia, and Alzheimer's in the EU and UK.

2️⃣ Iktos and Teijin Pharma to co-develop new technology for small molecule drug discovery. Under the agreement, Iktos generative modeling technology will be implemented and applied to several Teijin Pharma’s small molecule drug discovery projects to expedite the identification of potential pre-clinical candidates.

3️⃣ Suven Pharmaceuticals to acquire Casper Pharma for nearly $20.5mn. This acquisition will give access to Casper pharma's formulation unit, which is awaiting USFDA inspection and approval.

4️⃣ Harbour BioMed announces global out-license agreement with AstraZeneca for CLDN18.2xCD3 bispecific antibody HBM7022. AstraZeneca will be granted an exclusive global license for the research, development, registration, manufacturing, and commercialization of HBM7022 and shall be solely responsible for all costs and activities associated with its further development and commercialization.

5️⃣ ViGeneron signs gene therapy collaboration agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. This agreement is on developing and commercializing a gene therapy product based on ViGeneron’s engineered recombinant adeno-associated virus vectors (vgAAVs) to treat an inherited retinal disease (IRD).

⏫ Pipeline and Approvals

1️⃣ Aziyo announces FDA 510(k) submission for CanGaroo RM, its next-generation biomaterial envelope enhanced with antibiotics

2️⃣ European Commission Approves KIMMTRAK (tebentafusp) for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma

3️⃣ Innovent reports positive data from Phase III Trial of PCSK-9 cholesterol drug

4️⃣ In a first, FDA approves Nobelpharma's topical sirolimus for rare disease lesions

5️⃣ Kintor Pharma's proxalutamide demonstrated a reduction in hospitalization/mortality for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 in Phase III MRCT study

💰 Funding

1️⃣ CARB-X awards Clarametyx Biosciences $3.89mn in additional option funding to accelerate anti-biofilm technology for life-threatening bacterial infections. Clarametyx is a preclinical stage biotechnology company developing targeted, immune-enabling biologic therapies to counter serious infections associated with biofilms.

2️⃣ AVM Biotechnology awarded a $1.6mn Phase II SBIR grant to study AVM0703’s potential to reverse Type 1 Diabetes. This grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Disease (NIDDK) will allow the company to pursue additional research in the use of AVM0703 as a monotherapy and combination therapy to reverse recent onset and established Type 1 Diabetes.

3️⃣ BioCina awarded a grant to advance RNA vaccines and therapeutics. Grant to fund work with industry partners to develop RNA vaccines and therapeutics further.

4️⃣ Adaptive Phage Therapeutics extends series B to $61mn with the addition of The AMR Action Fund. Funding will be used to accelerate clinical trials against Prosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) and Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis

5️⃣ Aiming to add 10 years of lifespan, an anti-aging startup raises $180mn. Retrobiosciences use high-throughput, high-dimensional approaches to develop therapies for diseases driven by the biology of aging

📰 Interesting News

1️⃣ Obesity may alter inflammation on a molecular level, throwing current treatments into question. A study reported that among obese mice, there were molecular changes in the immune response to atopic dermatitis that likely impacted their response to treatment.

2️⃣ In-house production vs. CDMO: Meeting the challenges of commercializing cell and gene therapies. Commercializing cell and gene therapies efficiently requires timely decisions about whether to engage a CDMO or develop an internal manufacturing capacity. Sometimes the best solution is to do both.

3️⃣ Sugar-coated nanoparticles target macrophages, reverse pulmonary fibrosis. Scientists have developed a treatment for pulmonary fibrosis by using nanoparticles coated in mannose -- a type of sugar -- to stop a population of lung cells called macrophages that contribute to lung tissue scarring.

4️⃣ Streamlining CAR-T Cell therapy manufacturing: A platform approach. CAR-T manufacturing can be simplified using a pre-optimized production process that leads to consistent, high-quality results in a platform approach.

5️⃣ Not all dietary fiber is created equal: cereal fiber but not fruit or vegetable fibers are linked with lower inflammation. Researchers evaluated whether dietary fiber intake was associated with decreased inflammation in older adults and if the fiber was inversely related to cardiovascular disease. The results showed that total fiber, more specifically cereal fiber but not fruit or vegetable fiber, was consistently associated with lower inflammation and lower CVD incidence.