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 SPIMACO partners with Vifor Pharma to localize the manufacture of key medicine, Ferinject. Agreement was reached to manufacture and commercialize a ferric carboxymaltose preparation through SPIMACO.

2️⃣ Oasmia signs a manufacturing agreement with Lonza. The companies have signed a large-scale manufacturing agreement for the main drug intermediate in the supply of clinical material for Oasmia's investigational drug candidate, Cantrixil. 

3️⃣ Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical partners with a specialty pharmaceutical manufacturer, KVK-Tech, to provide formulation and chemistry, manufacturing & controls for Covid-19 oral therapeutic.

4️⃣ Halozyme enters global collaboration and license agreement with Chugai. It gives exclusive access to Halozyme's Enhanze drug delivery technology, recombinant human hyaluronidase PH20 enzyme (rHuPH20), for an undisclosed target.

5️⃣ Sanofi partners with organoid startup Prellis Biologics. The deal will focus on using the lymph node organoids that Prellis has developed to produce antibodies for undisclosed targets.

⏫ Pipeline and Approvals

1️⃣ BMS relatlimab gains FDA approval for melanoma

2️⃣ Countdown's on as FDA accepts BLA for Provention Bio's diabetes delay drug

3️⃣ Novartis' radiopharma drug wins approval in tough-to-treat prostate cancer patients

4️⃣ Ensartinib secures first approval for 1st line treatment in ALK+ NSCLC

5️⃣ Pfizer's $7bn bet delivers phase 3 success, advancing bid to establish new drug in ulcerative colitis arena

💰 Funding

1️⃣ Yisheng Bio raises $40mn in royalty-based funding from CBC Affiliate. Yisheng develops products based on its PIKA immunomodulatory adjuvant for vaccines, cancer, and infectious diseases.

2️⃣ Ilya Pharma paves way for bacterial gene therapy with €8.5mn funding. Ilya Pharma is working on bacterial gene therapies for enterocolitis and diabetic ulcers.

3️⃣ Affini-T Therapeutics secures funding to advance T cell therapies. Affini-T intends to use the funding to advance its T-cell receptor (TCR) platform discovery engine as well as its multiple oncogene driver programs into the clinic.

4️⃣ Celsius Therapeutics heats up with $83mn and an IBD drug on path to the clinic. Funding to advance its pipeline of drugs for autoimmune disorders and cancer. Its lead autoimmune program, a TREM1-blocking antibody for inflammatory bowel disease, is expected to begin human testing in early 2023.

5️⃣ Podimetrics snags $45mn to grow its diabetic foot health business, prevent amputations. The company is using the funding to grow its product development and research teams, and expand the clinical services offered by its nurse support team.

📰 Interesting News

1️⃣ New eye mask could help prevent diabetes-related vision loss. The innovative Noctura 400 sleep mask provides non-invasive treatment for diabetic retinopathy using organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

2️⃣ Origins of diabetes may be different in men and women. Researchers look at how fat tissue from different parts of the body may lead to diabetes onset in men and women.

3️⃣ Study finds complex relationships between bacteria and markers of lower airway infection and inflammation in cystic fibrosis. The lower airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) have unique biochemical features that correlate with the complex communities of lung bacteria typical of this disease.

4️⃣ Could a simple dietary supplement treat Alzheimer's? Niacin is a promising therapeutic agent for Alzheimer’s disease with a high translational potential for clinical use.

5️⃣ Lipid and glucose levels at age 35 associated with Alzheimer's disease. According to new research, lower HDL (high-density cholesterol) and high triglyceride levels measured in the blood as early as age 35 are associated with a higher incidence of AD several decades later in life. Researchers also found that high blood glucose measured between ages 51-60 is associated with a risk of AD in the future.