Research & Development

NIH grants $9m for nicotine cessation drug development

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) unit National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has granted an award of $9m for researchers to advance drug, SBP-9330, to treat nicotine addiction.

Oricell’s OriCAR-017 application secures FDA IND clearance

Oricell Therapeutics has announced the clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for OriCAR-017, a new CAR-T cell therapy targeting GPRC5D, for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (R/R MM).

Zokinvy gets Japanese approval for Progeria treatment

The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) has announced the Japanese approval of Zokinvy (lonafarnib) for treating Progeria and processing-deficient Progeroid Laminopathies (PL).

FDA grants two designations for GenFleet’s drug candidate SLS009

Chinese biotechnology company GenFleet Therapeutics has received the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designations for its drug candidate SLS009 (GFH009).

AGC Biologics to build new facility in Japan

AGC Biologics has announced the establishment of a new manufacturing site at the AGC Yokohama Technical Center in Japan.

Innovent and SanegeneBio partner for hypertension drug development

Innovent Biologics has signed a partnership agreement with Sanegene Bio to jointly develop an angiotensinogen (AGT) directed siRNA drug candidate, SGB-3908, to treat hypertension.

LimmaTech, AbVacc sign licensing agreement for S. aureus vaccine candidate

LimmaTech Biologics and AbVacc have entered into a licensing agreement, under which the former will get exclusive rights for the continued development of the latter's multivalent toxoid vaccine candidate, LBT-SA7 (previously known as IBT-V02).

Aldevron signs agreement to acquire license to Codex HiCap RNA Polymerase

Aldevron, a US-based developer and manufacturer of plasmid DNA, RNA and proteins for the biotech industry, has signed an agreement with US-based enzyme engineering company Codexis to acquire global exclusive license to Codex HiCap RNA Polymerase.

Almirall signs alliance with etherna for new mRNA-based therapies

Pharmaceutical company focused on medical dermatology Almirall has signed a multi-target alliance with mRNA/LNP technology platform company etherna to discover and develop new mRNA-based therapies to address severe skin diseases, including non-melanoma skin cancer.