Clene Nanomedicine has signed a pair of leases that will effectively quadruple its physical footprint in Cecil County. The company also plans to add about 400 new jobs in the area over the next five years.

Heat’s pipeline features candidates for immuno-oncology, infectious diseases and Covid-19. HS-110 has completed its Phase II trial to treat non-small cell lung cancer, and solid tumor treatment PTX-35 and T cell activator HS-130 are in Phase I trials. The new Scorpion site will support new drugs from discovery through clinical trials.

When Kristen Oelschlager, RN, chief operating officer at Castle Biosciences, learned about her cancer diagnosis, she was shocked. What she thought was a simple spot on her left temple turned out to be melanoma, a type of skin cancer that can lead to death, according to the National Cancer Institute. Melanoma of the skin accounts for 5.6% of all new cancer cases in the U.S., and an estimated more than 106,000 cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2021. But for Oelschlager, melanoma was the last thought on her mind when a friend asked about the troublesome spot. Oelschlager says, “I thought [my friend] was being a little crazy. I agreed to go have it looked at, mainly to appease her.” Luckily, her friend was right to push for the examination.

CNM-Au8, Clene’s lead drug candidate, is an aqueous suspension comprising catalytically active, clean-surfaced and faceted gold nanocrystals. The company explained in a statement that the therapy’s catalytically active nanocrystals fuel “critical cellular energy” that ultimately produce brain reactions enabling neurorepair and remyelination. This is reportedly accomplished via increases in neuronal and glial resilience to stressors relevant to neurologic diseases.

Boston-based PepGen’s lead candidate is a therapeutic oligonucleotide that targets exon 51 to treat a subset of DMD patients, putting the biotech squarely on the turf of Sarepta. Like Exondys 51, the drug is designed to mask exon 51 and thereby enable patients to produce the functional dystrophin needed to strengthen muscle fibers.

“We believe the synergy between Celularity’s placental-derived cells and our OnCARlytic platform has the potential to shift the cellular medicine paradigm,” Leslie Chong, managing director and chief executive officer of Imugene, stated in a press release.

Dr. Chris Anzalone, PhD, President and CEO of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals discusses new positive patient-level data from their AROAAT2002 global Phase 2 study of ARO-AAT, an RNA therapeutic being co-developed by the company and Takeda, in patients with liver disease caused by alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD).   He also talks about the company’s RNAi platform.

On Wednesday, BeyondSpring, a small New York biotech with an offbeat approach to immunotherapy, announced its lead drug significantly extended non-small cell lung cancer patients’ lives in a large trial. Although the company did not release the exact survival data, it said that nearly twice as many patients were alive after two years on the drug arm than on the standard-of-care arm.