
- | DURECT
Get to Know Norman Sussman, Chief Medical Officer at DURECT
BioSpace recently spoke with Norman Sussman, chief medical officer at DURECT, a company committed to transforming the treatment of acute organ injury and chronic liver diseases by advancing novel and lifesaving therapies based on its endogenous epigenetic regulator program.

- | X4 Pharmaceuticals
Let’s Get to Know Paula Ragan, CEO and President of X4 Pharmaceuticals
BioSpace spoke with Paula Ragan, CEO and President of X4 Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on restoring healthy immune system function in people with rare diseases. X4’s lead product candidate, mavorixafor (X4P-001), is a potential first-in-class inhibitor of CXCR4.

- | Sio Gene Therapies
The Making of a Gene Therapy for an Ultra-Rare Disease
While the since renamed company Sio Gene Therapies in-licensed one program in Parkinson’s disease, it also in-licensed a pair of gene therapy programs from the University of Massachusetts in GM1 gangliosidosis and Tay-Sachs/Sandhoff disease with the GM1 program being Sio’s lead candidate.

- | Celularity
The placenta: a limitless source of stem cells?
US biotech firm Celularity is a leader in cell therapy development, and is focused on harnessing the therapeutic potential of cells contained in the postpartum placenta. Having raised over $350 million since spinning out from pharma giant Celgene, today the company has multiple cell therapy candidates in both pre-clinical and clinical development, with indications including chronic degenerative diseases such as Crohn’s.

- | Cue Biopharma
Filling A Vaccine Void with Cue Biopharma’s Dan Passeri, J.D.
CUE Biopharma CEO Dan Passeri, J.D. joins us for a discussion on the development of the company’s Immuno-STAT platform for the selective targeting and alteration of T cells. Passeri shares the rationale behind his belief in the company’s immunotherapeutic approach, and how the CUE-100 series of candidates in its pipeline are being developed to address a scourge of HPV-related head, neck, and other cancers.

- | Vaxart
COVID-19 vaccines — minus the needle? Researchers working on capsules, nasal sprays
According to FasterCures, which is tracking 326 COVID-19 treatments and 252 vaccines, five companies are developing oral vaccines, and two — ImmunityBio and Vaxart — have progressed to Phase 1 clinical trials.

- | AltruBio
New name, new board, new focus: AltruBio relaunches with $63M series A
AltruBio would like to reintroduce itself. After shifting from oncology to immunology, swapping out the board and completing a name change, the biotech is relaunching with a $63 million series A funding round.

- | OSE Immunotherapeutics
New agonist MAb resolves chronic inflammation
A French study has demonstrated that the novel agonist anti-human ChemR23 monoclonal antibody (MAb) designated OSE-230 accelerated recovery from acute inflammation and triggered resolution of chronic inflammation in mice chronic colitis models, preventing fibrosis and reducing tumor development.