Michael Tattory

See author Cormac Sheridan’s discussion of the biotech industry members developing therapeutics based on targeting the Wnt pathway in this issue of Nature Biotech. Included in the report is Samumed, a company developing a Wnt-targeted therapy for the treatment of Osteoarthritis and other prevalent diseases.

A small-molecule intra-articular Wnt pathway inhibitor, SM04690, is being developed and the results of a phase IIb trial were presented at the ACR meeting by Yusuf Yazici, MD, of NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City and Samumed, LLC, in San Diego.

Market of dermatologists prescribing for rosacea and acne is very focused, so Foamix says it can manage commercialization of topical minocycline foam on its own.

“For Celyad, the sequence of listing first in Europe and then in the US allowed the company to first strengthen and solidify its company and clinical roots in Europe, and then broaden its investor base and support new programs by listing in the US,” Filippo Petti, CFO of Celyad, told me.

We recently spoke to Alexis Peyroles, CEO at OSE Immunotherapeutics to hear more about the findings of their recent study, published in Nature Communications, describing, for the first time ever, the in vivo mechanism of action of interleukin 7 receptor alpha (IL-7Rα) monoclonal antibodies, suggesting therapeutic efficacy in controlling chronic inflammation.

Oxurion announced that it entered into a strategic research collaboration with Beta Therapeutics (Canberra, Australia) to develop new heparanase inhibitors for the treatment of retinal disorders with large unmet medical needs such as dry age-related macular degeneration.

Taking medical cannabis led 62 percent of patients with chronic nerve pain to cut down or stop their opioid use, according to a first-of-its-kind pilot study that tracked 76 individuals over nine months.

At the 2018 American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, Patrik De Haes, MD, CEO of Oxurion (formerly ThromboGenics) spoke about several investigational molecules his company is investigating for various retina conditions.

Krystal Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ:KRYS) added $4.32 (28%) to $20 on Monday when it reported interim data from the Phase I/II GEM trial showing that topical gene therapy KB103 met all primary efficacy and safety endpoints in two adults with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.

Krystal Biotech (KRYS) rocketed to a record high Monday after its gene therapy showed promise as a skin disease treatment. In midday trading on the stock market today, Krystal stock soared 30.9%, near 20.50. Earlier, Krystal popped as much as 37.6% in higher-than-average volume. Krystal stock began trading around 10 in September 2017.

In a game-changing preclinical study targeted toward controlling graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), OSE Immunotherapeutics SA has shown new efficacy results evaluating FR104 and whether a transplant takes. This study, announced Aug. 22, showed strong evidence in the value of targeting CD28 in GvHD for potential clinical applications in autoimmune diseases and transplantation.

Two years after Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals $ARWR conceded that a substantial segment of their RNAi pipeline was hopelessly compromised and had to be jettisoned, crippling their stock price, the biotech is staging a major comeback.

Arena announced encouraging data from a small Phase IIa study for oloranib (APD371) in abdominal pain associated with Crohn’s disease as the company continues a streak of good news after two of its more advanced clinical-stage programs posted positive results.

Abivax S.A. (Euronext:ABVX) has positioned its anti-HIV therapy ABX464 to take on inflammatory diseases after discovering the small molecule triggers RNA splicing that both halts HIV viral replication and boosts anti-inflammatory responses in HIV and ulcerative colitis. According to CEO Hartmut Ehrlich, ABX464 binds the human cap binding complex (CBC) and promotes its splicing activity.

Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) jumped early Tuesday on promising data for its non-opioid treatment for Crohn’s disease pain. In morning trading on the stock market today, Arena stock lifted 2%, near 43.70, after earlier rising as much as 3.7%. Shares are consolidating with a buy point at 50.15.

The first patient has been enrolled in a phase 2 open-label multicenter study to evaluate intravitreal THR-317, an anti-PIGF antibody, for the treatment of macular telangiectasia type 1, according to a press release from Oxurion. The study will enroll 10 patients with macular edema caused by macular telangiectasia type 1 (MacTel 1), a rare disease

Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ:FOMX) raised $70 million through the sale of 11.7 million shares at $6 in a follow-on underwritten by BofA Merrill Lynch, Cowen, Barclays and Cantor Fitzgerald. The price is a tiny discount to Foamix’s close of $6.11 on Wednesday, when it proposed the offering after market hours. The company gained $0.19 to

A genome editing tie-up between Gilead and Precision Biosciences, and promising early data with Arrowhead’s RNA interference project, are two novel approaches in hep B.

RedHill Biopharma Ltd., which just announced encouraging results in Phase 3 studies, became involved in the development of RHB-104 in 2010 when it acquired the rights to the drug combination that had been developed by Prof. Thomas Borody, an Australian gastroenterologist. RHB-104 was originally developed based on the hypothesis that Crohn’s disease is triggered by