Aphaia Pharma, a Swiss biotech, is developing an oral glucose formulation. This aims to restore endogenous signaling mechanisms and metabolic homeostasis in people with obesity, with the goal of mimicking the metabolic effects of bypass surgery without the adverse effects. Its lead drug candidate is currently in a Phase II proof-of-concept study in individuals with obesity, and another Phase II in people with pre-diabetes.

From San Francisco’s Silicon Valley to Tel Aviv’s Silicon Wadi, software business entrepreneur Yochi Slonim made a name for himself in tech hubs around the globe. Notably, he was co-founder of billion-dollar Mercury Interactive, which HP acquired for $4.5 billion, and previous to that a leader at Tecnomatix, which sold to UGS and was acquired by Siemens. Those big deals that came on the heels of several other Yochi Slonim software startups. But Slonim’s not in software development anymore.

Following plans to add cohorts in an ongoing Phase II weight-loss study, Aphaia Pharma’s CSO Steffen-Sebastian Bolz says there are now rising challenges with the recruitment of patients in obesity trials.

In this episode, Megan Thomas is in conversation with Steve Worland, CEO of eFFECTOR. eFFECTOR is a company targeting three distinct targets central to the eIF4F translation initiation complex: MNK, eIF4A and eIF4E. Each of these targets regulates distinct sets of genes in cancer and immune cells.

So with positive data, and in the summer, we would begin another pivotal trial. This trial will be slightly different in that it will be slightly larger and will include both the US and European sites.

But behind the industry’s first uplisting of 2024, from San Diego biotech Skye Bioscience, is investors’ interest in an area of drug R&D that every therapeutics developer wants in on right now: the next wave of obesity medications.

Dr. Peter DeMuth, Chief Scientific Officer of Elicio Therapeutics, discusses the revolutionary approach of detecting cancer at its earliest stages through circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) tests. Highlighting their innovative treatment method, which aims to train the body’s immune cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells, the episode explores the potential transition from treatment to vaccine, offering hope for more effective and durable solutions.

Florida-based Syncromune presented the first-ever clinical data from SYNC-T, a personalized platform therapy that uses a drug-device combination, in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.