Data from a phase 2a clinical trial of DUR-928, an endogenous, small-molecule new chemical entity, for patients with alcoholic hepatitis demonstrated that the treatment led to greater reductions from baseline in bilirubin and MELD and improved Lille scores compared with a historical control group from a University of Louisville alcoholic hepatitis study, according to a company press release.

Nurix Therapeutics is harnessing the body’s natural process for controlling protein levels to target and degrade proteins that drive cancer and other diseases. Its small molecule therapies control key enzymes responsible for protein breakdown and can be used to modulate the levels of proteins within cells. The company believes it can leverage the approach to treat a range of diseases. We spoke to Arthur Sands, CEO of Nurix, about the company’s discovery platform, its pipeline of cancer therapies, and its recent collaboration with Gilead Sciences to discover and develop drug candidates against up to five targets.

DNA-encoded libraries are quickly surpassing traditional high throughput screens as industry’s first stop for hit generation. Now, developers are taking the technology up a notch to get more tractable hits in the output. DNA-encoded library (DEL) screens blow conventional high throughput screening techniques out of the water when it comes to library size and diversity, enabling screening of millions more compounds without sacrificing time or cost.

OncoCyte’s newly appointed CEO Ronald Andrews is making good on a promise for more transparency in the company. Investors and analysts witnessed this new level of transparency first hand during a detailed conference call the Alameda, CA-based company held concerning its plan for acquiring Razor Genomics.

Orchestra BioMed said yesterday that it received the CE Mark for its Moderato implantable pulse generator system for BackBeat cardiac neuromodulation therapy (CNT), just nine days after naming a new chief medical officer. BackBeat therapy is a bioelectronic treatment designed to lower blood pressure while modulating the autonomic nervous system. The Moderato implantable device is designed to deliver BackBeat CNT and provide standard pacemaker functions.

Orchestra BioMed, a company out of New Hope, Pennsylvania, won the European CE Mark of approval for the Moderato implantable pulse generator which delivers Orchestra’s unique BackBeat Cardiac Neuromodulation Therapy (CNT) to treat hypertension. High blood pressure is typically treated using drugs, but BackBeat allows even existing cardiac implants to deliver therapy in a novel way by modulating the bioelectronic signals associated with blood pressure control.

Sometimes things don’t go your way in the biotech industry. The CEO of Valneva, Thomas Lingelbach, shared his experience of migrating from big pharma to biotech, and how his first biotech company weathered phase III failures to develop vaccines for neglected diseases.