Olivia Vizier

The UK government has placed an order for 60 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine from Valneva for about $555 million. The deal includes an additional investment that CEO Thomas Lingelbach says will help double the footprint of Valneva’s manufacturing site in Livingston, Scotland, and allow it to produce 100 million to 150 million doses annually.

Cidara Therapeutics is hoping that its novel approach to influenza will prevent future “twindemic” double threats like the one we may face this year. With their proprietary Cloudbreak® antiviral platform, Cidara is developing long-acting therapeutics designed to improve the standard of care for patients with serious fungal or viral infections.

Arrowhead is one of the leading companies researching RNA interference, a Nobel Prize-winning technology that has been aimed at an array of chronic and genetic diseases.

Valneva SE has announced a vaccine partnership with the UK Government for its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, covering up to 190 million doses.

Vaxart will start a Phase 1 clinical trial for its oral COVID-19 vaccine candidate, having received Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance.

Valneva, a France-based biotech company, is currently developing a drug that has the potential to treat Lyme disease. Called VLA15, the drug is in phase two of trials and the company is already planning for phase three.

Orasis Pharmaceuticals is one of several biotechs developing miotic-based eye drops as a potential alternative to reading glasses — one drop, and no more squinting at text messages. With the help of a $30 million Series C, the Israel-based company has its sights set on Phase III.

An Australian-based biotech company has announced positive, dose-dependent reductions against SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19, following treatment with two anti-infective drug candidates, RECCE® 327 and RECCE® 529 (R327 and R529). Recce Pharmaceuticals, which developed the candidates, says it will be advancing the compounds to in vivo studies in ferrets in a US study.

The allogeneic therapy, CYAD-211 from Celyad Oncology, is unique insofar that it uses short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) editing to knock down the CD37 component of the T-cell receptor (TCR). It is a first-in-class CAR-T candidate, meaning it would represent the first CAR-T therapy that uses this gene-editing approach.

NeoTX Therapeutics and Active Biotech, meanwhile, are working on immunotherapy with naptumomab, which fuses the Fab fragment of an antibody targeting 5T4 with an engineered bacterial superantigen that activates T cell responses.

The work is being done in conjunction with biotech company Heat Biologics. This candidate vaccine will need to go through clinical studies before scientists will know if it works in people.

Filippo Petti is CEO of Celyad Oncology (Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium), a clinical-stage biotech focused on the discovery and development of CAR-T therapies. Here, he tells Pharm Exec how the pandemic affected his role as a US-based CEO to a Belgian company and what permanent changes it has brought to the way the company operates.

NeuBase leader Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D. says we’ve reached a digitally-enabled inflection point in disease therapy development.

Likewise, Compugen is positioning its anti-TIGIT therapy, COM902, alongside the company’s inhibitor of poliovirus-receptor-related immunoglobulin (PVRIG), a related co-inhibitory receptor that competes with DNAM-1 and TIGIT for binding to the CD122 ligand.

When the biotech got started in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was singularly focused on tarloxotinib, a small molecule inhibitor named for its design to target low oxygen levels in the tumor and thereby sparing healthy tissues. More than two years later, Rain has tripled its pipeline within days, first licensing a research program

Celyad Oncology is at the forefront of cutting-edge immunotherapy and is hopeful of providing a new way forward for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. After receiving FDA approval on July 14th to begin Phase I trials, they plan to be in the clinic with their first patient the end of 2020.

X4 Pharmaceuticals said that comprehensive data from its mid-stage trial of mavorixafor for the treatment of adult patients with the rare genetic syndrome WHIM was published in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

Cell therapy developer Celyad Oncology is using short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) to create T cells that can be used as an “off-the-shelf” allogeneic therapy for cancer patients. They are also using the technology to help T cells survive longer in patients.

Heat Biologics CEO Jeff Wolf talks with Contagion about the firm’s effort to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus focused on combining antibody and T cell immunity using the GP-96 protein.

A distinct targeting approach is being followed at Vaccinex. “We are not targeting the mutation that triggers the disease, but the pathological process that is triggered by the accumulation of misfolded proteins,” says Maurice Zauderer, PhD, the company’s CEO.

CalciMedica has been developing a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs, calcium release-activated calcium (CRAC) channel blockers, with the lead indications for treating acute pancreatitis and viral pneumonia now in Phase 2 trials for its compound, Auxora, an injectable emulsion. Recently, the company discovered the same drug may have a large impact on systemic inflammatory response

This work ultimately led to the creation of Fountain Therapeutics, where he is a co-founder – and continues to drive a significant amount of the research conducted at his Stanford lab.

When Bionano Genomics acquired Lineagen, Inc. in August, the genomic analysis company gained the final piece it needed to provide comprehensive structural variation detection for researchers and drug developers and a reimbursement pathway for clinicians who want to use its technology to replace cytogenetic tests to diagnose cancers and rare diseases.

Valneva makes vaccines from inactivated viruses that are killed with chemicals. Jonas Salk and other early vaccine makers found this recipe to work well. Chinese vaccine makers already have three such coronavirus vaccines in Phase 3 trials, but Dr. Lingelbach still sees an opportunity for Valneva making its own.

Patrick Soon-Shiong knows when he realized that the Covid-19 pandemic was going to pose a serious threat. It was February 24, and the part-owner of the L.A. Lakers was at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for Kobe Bryant’s memorial service.

“Empowering” natural killer (NK) cells to destroy tumors could cut the cost of cell therapies, according to a company developing the technology. Acepodia has started Phase I trials of its lead drug candidate, a cancer treatment based on a new cell therapy platform. Antibody Cell Conjugation (ACC) uses “molecular Velcro” to attach tumor-fighting antibodies to the surface