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AVEO Oncology Regains Full Global Rights to Ficlatuzumab
“We are very pleased to regain full rights to another late-stage asset. This comes at a strategic point in our Company’s history, as we continue to build a commercial biopharmaceutical company with a broad oncology portfolio that has the potential to enable a long-term, sustainable growth model,” said Michael Bailey, president and chief executive officer of AVEO. “The early data we have seen in the randomized, open-label HNSCC study with ficlatuzumab combined with cetuximab (ERBITUX®) has led us to the decision to secure additional clinical manufacturing capacity, which we expect to fund within our previously announced cash runway guidance, in order to prepare for a potential HNSCC pivotal study. We look forward to presenting final results from the Phase 2 study in the middle of 2021, and to providing an update on our potential pivotal program within that timeframe.”
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Orasis Pharmaceuticals secured $30 million Series C funding for Presbyopia treatment
Orasis (Herzliya, Israel) is an ophthalmic pharmaceutical company developing eyedrop as a remedy for presbyopia. This Israeli biotech raised $30 million series C funding to advance their research to treat presbyopia noninvasively. The financing round was led by new investor Bluestem Capital and returning investor Visionary Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SBI (Japan) Innovation Fund, Maverick Ventures Israel, LifeSci Venture Partners, and additional investors.
Presbyopia, an age-related ocular condition that creates difficulties to focus on near objects. This condition is most prevalent in mid-forties people and it affects nearly 2 billion people worldwide. Aging leads to reduced elasticity of the lens of the eye which in turn affects the ability to focus at close range. Most people use reading glasses to overcome presbyopia.
Orasis has developed the drug CSF-1, a corrective eyedrop that has shown exceptional safety and tolerability profile in phase 2b clinical study. $30 million funding will advance the phase 3 clinical trial and commercialization of the product. Orasis is also competing with the rival product presbysol from Abbvie, which is also expected to enter phase 3 trial this year. Elad Kedar, CEO of Orasis is hopeful that with this huge funding from the investors, soon they can start the phase 3 clinical trial.
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Recursion bagged $239 million series D funding and partnering with Bayers for therapeutic advancement of fibrotic disease with AI-based drug discovery
US-based Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc (Salt Lake City, US) is a digital biology company that formed an alliance with German company Bayers, raising $239 million. The long-term aim of this collaboration is to capitalize on the therapeutic small molecules library from Bayers and the artificial intelligence-based drug discovery platform of Recursion.
This strategic agreement focused on fibrotic diseases of the lung, kidney, heart, and more will pay Recursion $30 million upfront for the partnership, along with $100 million each for up to 10 programs the companies could pursue. The funding also includes $50 million from Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer, as well as funding from Casdin Capital, Baillie Gifford, and other investors.
While an AI-based drug discovery company relies on already existing datasets, Recursion is hybrid biotech that utilizes both in house scientists and software engineers to create massive datasets and bringing the drugs through clinical development. Recursion already has multiple drugs in the pipeline including the rare disease Neurofibromatosis Type 2 and three other candidates in phase 2.
Overall, this partnership signifies one of the largest deals which can change the era of drug discovery permanently relying on AI-based next-generation therapies. Juergen Eckhardt, Head of Leaps by Bayer commented “Recursion is a leading digitally-powered drug discovery company to lift biotech research to new horizons with the use of artificial intelligence and pioneers transformational machine-learning powered drug discovery with the potential to develop curative treatments in the future.”
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