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Clinical Trial News

Biotech Funding Surge: $153M for Programmable mRNA Cancer Therapy Leads Major Investment Round

  • Strand Therapeutics secured $153 million in Series B funding to advance STX-001, a programmable mRNA therapy expressing IL-12 directly in tumor microenvironments, following promising Phase 1 results in advanced solid tumors.
  • SetPoint Medical raised $140 million to commercialize its first-of-its-kind neuroimmune modulation therapy for moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis and expand into other autoimmune conditions.
  • ARTBIO closed $132 million Series B financing to advance AB001 for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer through Phase II trials and expand global manufacturing infrastructure.
  • Multiple companies across diverse therapeutic areas secured significant funding, including CRISPR-based antimicrobial resistance treatments, reproductive care technologies, and next-generation biosensors.

Virginia Approves Incentive Packages for AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly Manufacturing Plants

  • Virginia lawmakers unanimously approved economic development packages worth over $10 million each for AstraZeneca's multibillion-dollar manufacturing plant in Albemarle County and Eli Lilly's facility in Goochland County.
  • The AstraZeneca project represents part of a $50 billion five-year investment plan and will be the company's largest global manufacturing investment, strategically located near the University of Virginia's Manning Institute of Biotechnology.
  • Both pharmaceutical giants are expanding domestic manufacturing capacity amid potential tariff threats, with Eli Lilly committing $50 billion over five years to double its U.S. manufacturing investments.
  • The Virginia facilities will strengthen a pharmaceutical manufacturing corridor extending from the Shenandoah Valley to Richmond, positioning the state as a major center for advanced pharmaceutical production.

Verily Shuts Down Medical Device Program as Alphabet Pivots to AI-Driven Healthcare Strategy

AI
  • Alphabet's life sciences subsidiary Verily eliminated its entire medical device program and laid off staff as part of a strategic shift toward AI and data infrastructure.
  • CEO Stephen Gillett announced the closure in a staff memo, acknowledging Verily's legacy in developing innovative medical devices while emphasizing the need for difficult decisions.
  • The shutdown reflects Alphabet's broader cost-cutting measures and aggressive investment in AI technology following the generative AI boom that began in early 2023.
  • This strategic pivot represents a significant change in Alphabet's healthcare approach, moving away from hardware development toward AI-powered solutions.

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Appoints James B. Bucher as Chief Legal Officer to Support Azenosertib's Advancement

  • Zentalis Pharmaceuticals has appointed James B. Bucher as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, effective September 18, 2025, bringing over 30 years of life sciences legal experience.
  • Bucher previously served as Chief Legal Officer at Harpoon Therapeutics and played a pivotal role in orchestrating the company's acquisition by Merck in 2024.
  • The appointment comes as Zentalis advances azenosertib, a potentially first-in-class WEE1 inhibitor, into registration-intent clinical trials for ovarian cancer treatment.
  • Bucher's extensive experience in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and public company matters will support Zentalis' late-stage development and potential product launch preparations.

Eris Lifesciences Receives ANVISA Approval for Sterile Injectable Facility, Enabling Brazil Market Entry

  • Eris Lifesciences' sterile injectable manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad received approval from ANVISA, Brazil's national health regulatory agency, following a successful inspection in May 2025.
  • The approval enables the Indian pharmaceutical company to enter Brazil, the largest pharmaceutical market in South America, expanding its Latin American presence.
  • The facility is part of Swiss Parenterals subsidiary acquired by Eris in 2024 and is already EUGMP and PIC/s approved, supplying products to several Latin American markets.
  • Company shares traded 0.2% higher at Rs 1,772.50 on BSE following the announcement, reflecting investor confidence in the strategic expansion.

Singapore's Nanyang Biologics Partners with Tech Giants to Accelerate AI-Powered Drug Discovery Platform

AIDrug Discovery
  • Nanyang Biologics has partnered with Equinix, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Nvidia to develop Vecura, an AI-enabled drug discovery platform that can identify potential drug candidates in as little as six minutes by 2026.
  • The platform builds on the company's earlier DTIGN technology, which successfully identified 15 potential drug candidates within six months for a Japanese pharmaceutical firm using graph neural networks and a library of compounds from over 50,000 organisms.
  • The global drug discovery platform market is projected to grow from $186 million in 2024 to $635 million by 2034, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 13 percent.
  • This collaboration positions Singapore as a leading hub for AI-enabled drug discovery, with Nanyang Biologics planning to commercialize the platform for other pharmaceutical companies while retaining intellectual property ownership.

Santersus Receives Second FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for NucleoCapture in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

  • Santersus AG has received its second FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for NucleoCapture blood purification technology, this time for treating severe, treatment-refractory systemic lupus erythematosus.
  • The extracorporeal therapeutic apheresis device selectively removes cell-free DNA and neutrophil extracellular traps from patient plasma, providing a novel non-immunosuppressive treatment option.
  • NucleoCapture is indicated as an adjunct to standard therapy for patients with severe or life-threatening refractory SLE who have active disease despite current standard of care treatment.
  • The company is preparing to initiate pivotal clinical trials in both the U.S. and Europe while completing its Series A financing round to advance toward regulatory approval.

Mount Sinai Researchers Discover Potent Monoclonal Antibodies Against Mpox with Complete Protection in Animal Models

Monoclonal Antibody
  • Researchers at Mount Sinai identified three powerful monoclonal antibodies targeting the A35 viral protein that completely prevented death and protected rodents from severe mpox disease in laboratory studies.
  • The antibodies bind to a highly conserved region across the entire poxvirus family, making them resistant to viral mutations and potentially effective against multiple orthopoxviruses.
  • Humans previously infected with mpox carry high levels of these protective antibodies, with their presence associated with milder symptoms and reduced hospitalization rates.
  • The discovery addresses a critical unmet medical need, as no approved drugs currently exist to treat mpox despite ongoing global outbreaks and WHO emergency declarations.

CARB-X Awards $1.1 Million to Phiogen for Novel Bacteriophage Treatment Against Drug-Resistant E. coli Bloodstream Infections

  • CARB-X has awarded $1.1 million to Houston-based biotechnology company Phiogen to advance PHI-BI-01, a novel bacteriophage-based treatment for extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli bloodstream infections.
  • The innovative therapy uses bacteria-killing viruses to eliminate drug-resistant E. coli strains in the bloodstream while activating immune responses to prevent infection recurrence.
  • PHI-BI-01 represents a potential breakthrough in addressing the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant E. coli infections, which have become increasingly frequent causes of invasive bloodstream infections.
  • The funding will enable Phiogen to explore the treatment's immunogenic properties, generate pre-clinical data, and advance toward first-in-human clinical trials.

BriaCell's Cancer Immunotherapy Mechanism Validated in NCI Collaboration Study

  • BriaCell Therapeutics announced publication of mechanism of action data for its Bria-OTS+ immunotherapy platform in JCI Insight, conducted in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute.
  • The study demonstrated that semi-allogeneic dendritic-cell vaccines recruit alloreactive CD4+ T-cell help through mismatched MHC class II molecules, strengthening antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell responses against tumors.
  • The findings validate BriaCell's core design principle of using partial HLA matching for effective tumor-antigen presentation while planned HLA mismatching drives robust CD4+ helper responses.
  • The data align with encouraging clinical results from BriaCell's ongoing Phase 1/2a study in metastatic breast cancer, which recently progressed into the dose expansion phase.

A Study of BRIA-OTS Cellular Immunotherapy in Metastatic Recurrent Breast Cancer

NCT06471673RecruitingPhase 1
BriaCell Therapeutics Corporation
Posted 5/29/2024

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