- | Scynexis
Battling Drug-Resistant Fungal Infections
The problem of drug resistance isn’t limited to bacteria. It is also a growing concern with fungal species that is causing an increasing need for new agents to combat these microbes. Scynexis is developing the experimental therapy ibrexafungerp, the first of a new class of therapies for serious fungal infections. We spoke to Marco Taglietti, president and CEO of Scynexis, about the problem of drug resistant fungal infections, the company’s experimental therapy ibrexafungerp, and why it may provide a new way of treating a range of serious fungal infections.
- | Cidara Therapeutics
Why New Antifungals Are Desperately Needed
The options that clinicians currently have to treat patients with systemic fungal infections are limited. “Because they’re eukaryotes, many of the potentially available targets that are essential for growth or reproduction in fungi resemble the [equivalent] target in humans, and so are really not available as a drug target,” explained Jeffrey Stein, CEO of US-based antifungal developer Cidara.
- | Heat Biologics
Building A Biotech Around Your Therapeutic Platform
Heat Biologics founder and CEO Jeff Wolf took a creative approach to building his company. With the science behind his company’s platform to activate immune responses against pathogenic or cancer antigens in place, he proceeded to structure the organization and its people in a strategic fashion to support that platform. Learn how he did it–and how Heat’s management philosophy is driving innovation and efficiency there–on this episode of The Business Of Biotech: Summer Executive Sessions.
- | Recce Pharmaceuticals
President’s visit proof Triangle is on the cutting edge of pandemic research
The so-called ‘synthetic anti-infectives’ are from an Australian company called ‘Recce Pharmaceuticals.’ It hopes the drugs will stop secondary bacterial infections in COVID-19 patients which it says causes the most deaths in those patients and claim that unlike most antibiotics their anti-infectives are resistant to bacterial mutations.
- | Valneva
Initial Results Positive For Valneva/Pfizer’s Lyme Disease Vaccine In First Phase II Study
Speciality vaccine biotech Valneva outlines seroconversion rates and safety of candidate Lyme disease vaccine that it is co-developing with partner Pfizer.
- | Check-Cap
Making Colorectal Cancer Screening Less of a Pain in the Ass
Colorectal cancer is the third most common form of the cancer. While screening is an effective means of preventing it, many people fail to get a colonoscopy because of the invasive nature of the procedure and the preparation and sedation that goes with it. Check-Cap is a clinical-stage company developing C-Scan, the first capsule-based system for preparation-free, colorectal cancer screening. The capsule uses ultra-low dose X-ray and wireless communication technologies to generate information on the contours of the inside of the colon as it passes through it. This creates a 3D map that allows physicians to look for polyps and other abnormalities. We spoke to Alex Ovadia, CEO of Check-Cap, about colorectal cancer, why people avoid being screened as they should, and how the company’s C-scan capsule-based system works.
- | Recce Pharmaceuticals
RECCE PHARMA: A NEW FRONTIER IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AMR
Antimicrobial resistance is a looming threat for modern medicine, but Australian biotech Recce Pharmaceuticals might have found a solution in its broad-spectrum synthetic antibiotic. Chloe Kent speaks to Recce executive director of regulatory affairs Michele Dilizia about the idea behind this novel approach.
- | Sotio
Immunocytokines Platform Superagonist Activates T-cells and NK Cells to Fight Solid Tumors With Jens Hennecke SOTIO
Jens Hennecke, Chief Business Officer, SOTIO explains how this biotech company is developing the next generation of immunotherapies with a focus on a new compound called SO-C101 based on the cytokine IL-15, the key cytokine that activates T-cells and NK cells. In clinical trials, this drug, a modified IL-15 does not cause unwanted side effects like similar products to treat solid tumors and is a superagonist with a much better potency to activate memory T-cells, cytotoxic T-cells and NK cells.
