Medical Research Council

ELRIG's Drug Discovery 2024, Europe's largest drug discovery conference, featured 26 Breakthrough Zone companies, including Constructive Bio, winner of the ELRIG Innovation Award. Constructive Bio's technology, based on full genome synthesis and engineered protein translation, aims to revolutionize drug manufacturing and discovery by creating sustainable new materials and therapeutics. The company's innovations address challenges in drug stability, scalability, and sustainability, with potential applications in biopharma, materials science, and beyond.

Salim and Quarraisha Abdool-Karim won the Lasker Prize for their HIV research, focusing on heterosexual transmission and developing Tenofovir gel to prevent HIV in women. Their work contributed to reducing new HIV infections in South Africa.

Constructive Bio secures £43m in Series A funding led by Ahren, OMX Ventures, and Paladin Capital Group. The investment will advance synthetic genomics tech, enabling genome synthesis and novel biomolecule creation. Nobel Prize winner Sir Gregory Winter joins the board, and CEO Ola Wlodek highlights the potential to revolutionize drug manufacturing and discovery.

Transdermal estradiol (tE2) patches are as effective as LHRH agonists in treating high-risk locally advanced nonmetastatic prostate cancer, with similar 3-year metastasis-free survival rates (87% vs 86%) and no significant difference in overall survival. tE2 reduces testosterone without estrogen-depletion effects, offering fewer hot flushes and more gynecomastia. Funded by Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, the study suggests tE2 should be a standard care option for nonmetastatic disease.

Article references focus on healthcare costs, disease management, and patient self-management, particularly in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Germany.

Dimerix collaborates with UK’s National Registry of Rare Kidney Diseases to identify FSGS patients for ACTION3 trial, aiming to evaluate DMX-200 efficacy and safety. RaDaR, the largest kidney registry, holds records of 34,500 patients. The trial, currently recruiting across 16 countries, targets 286 patients over two years, with interim analysis showing DMX-200 outperforming placebo in reducing proteinuria.