The Weekly Roundup newsletter curates the top five - deals, pipeline, funding, and news from the past week.

The complete list is available here: Industry Updates

🤝Deals and Collaborations

1️⃣ eXmoor pharma and vaccine developer Imophoron sign process development partnership. Under the agreement, eXmoor will first develop a scalable and commercializable manufacturing platform for Imophoron’s vaccine technology.

2️⃣ MEI Pharma and Infinity Pharmaceuticals announce a definitive merger agreement to advance three promising clinical oncology candidates. The combination will create a company with a diverse product development pipeline led by a planned new global Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating eganelisib in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)

3️⃣ Keymed, Lepu Biopharma entered a global license agreement with AstraZeneca for CMG901. Under the terms of the deal, AstraZeneca will be responsible for the research, development, manufacture, and commercialization of CMG901 a potential first-in-class Claudin 18.2 antibody-drug conjugate globally.

4️⃣ Redx Pharma to merge with Jounce Therapeutics. The merger will create a transatlantic organization with expertise in small-molecule drugs and biologics, as well as a clinical pipeline with multiple value inflection points in the near and medium term.

5️⃣ Tempus forms Multi-omics collaboration with Actuate Therapeutics. Agreement in which datasets of different omic groups – genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and others are combined during analysis to improve research and enable new discoveries, including ones that would have been missed with a single method alone.

⏫ Pipeline and Approvals

1️⃣ Oncology: Karyopharm and Menarini Group receive full marketing authorization from the UK MHRA for NEXPOVIO (selinexor) in combination with Bortezomib and Dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy.

2️⃣ Oncology: EU approves AstraZeneca’s tablet formulation of Calquence to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

3️⃣ Genetic disorder: FDA approves Sanofi’s long-lasting hemophilia drug.

4️⃣ Oncology: New promising targeted drug for a rare leukemia was recently granted marketing authorization in Finland.

5️⃣ Oncology: BeiGene’s PD-1 was approved in China for tenth indication, gastric cancer.

💰 Funding

1️⃣ Hemab Therapeutics announces $135mn series B financing to advance first prophylactic treatments for underserved bleeding and thrombotic disorders. Funding enables completion of ongoing Phase 1/2 study of bispecific antibody HMB-001 in Glanzmann Thrombasthenia, initiation of pivotal studies, start and conclusion of Phase 1/2 study of HMB-VWF in von Willebrand Disease, as well as future pipeline evolution.

2️⃣ Abivax SA raises €130mn to advance obefazimod to Phase III. Funds to accelerate Phase III testing of its ulcerative colitis candidate obefazimod.

3️⃣ Genascence receives an $11.6mn award from California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to help advance its lead gene therapy program in knee osteoarthritis. Funding over four years will support the Phase 1b clinical trial of GNSC-001, as well as phase-appropriate manufacturing activities.

4️⃣ Olatec gets $40mn to put anti-inflammatory in a late-stage trial. Olatec Therapeutics said the financing will fund a late-stage clinical trial of its drug, dapansutrile, an NLRP3 inhibitor.

5️⃣ Resalis Therapeutics receives €10mn to develop obesity and NAFLD treatment. The funding will support the finalization of IND-enabling studies for Resalis Therapeutics’ lead program, RES-010, which Resalis will initially develop as a novel treatment for obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

📰 Interesting News

1️⃣ Scientists are testing a virtual reality for pain relief. Scientists found that patients did not perceive a significant difference in the intensity of pain between the traditional pain treatment method versus the VR treatment option.

2️⃣ Delaying type 1 diabetes progression: major trial readouts to watch in 2023. Four clinical trials aim to slow or delay type 1 diabetes progression, but each targets different patients and assesses different endpoints.

3️⃣ Can ChatGPT revolutionize pharma marketing? ChatGPT‘s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are poised to transform the way that companies engage with consumers and healthcare professionals.

4️⃣ Vibrating capsule doubles the ability for constipation sufferers to defecate without drugs. A vibrating capsule designed to stir the colon to action appears to double the ability for adults struggling with debilitating chronic constipation to defecate more normally and without drugs.

5️⃣ Apple making strides on noninvasive, continuous blood glucose monitoring for Apple Watch. The tech giant has reportedly had hundreds of engineers working on the secret project deemed “E5” for years, pursuing technological capabilities that measure the glucose in a person’s body without pricking the skin for blood.