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Gilead Exercises Options to Three Arcus Biosciences Clinical-Stage Programs and Adds Research Collaboration
“Gilead is pursuing some of the most promising mechanisms of action in oncology today, with the aim of achieving better treatment outcomes for more patients,” said Daniel O’Day, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gilead Sciences. “The addition of three mid- to late-stage clinical programs into our oncology pipeline significantly expands the number of transformational medicines we can potentially deliver to people with cancer, while also enabling our pursuit of novel combinations.”
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SOTIO Expands its Antibody-Drug Conjugate Pipeline with Exclusive Collaboration and License Agreement with LegoChem Biosciences
“At SOTIO we are building an innovative pipeline of ADC programs and plan IND filing for our lead program SOT102 by the end of 2021. The licensing agreement with our new, experienced partner LegoChem allows us to broaden our oncology pipeline with additional programs and solid tumor targets. We are looking forward to using the potential of LegoChem’s ADC technology platform and to develop innovative ADCs for patients in need,” said Radek Spisek, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of SOTIO.
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Avilar Therapeutics launches with $60 million to degrade extracellular targets
Avilar Therapeutics is joining the growing targeted degrader crowd. But whereas most companies like Arvinas, Frontier Medicines in that area are advancing small molecules that break down intracellular proteins, Avilar is only the second to publicly take on extracellular troublemakers.
The Massachusetts-based startup is formally launching with $60 million in seed financing from RA Capital Management, a life science–focused investment firm, to build on the concept of bifunctional degraders. The startup is named ATACs (ASGPR Targeting Chimeras). These small molecules typically have two “arms” with different chemical functionality: one to bind a target of interest and another to bind a protein called an E3 ligase. The E3 ligase tags the target for degradation by a cellular trash disposal system called the proteasome. RA Capital started exploring this extracellular opportunity in 2019. The degrader strategy its team landed on also relies on two-armed molecules, but it harnesses a different cellular disposal system, called the endolysosome, to do the degradative dirty work. One arm again binds a therapeutic target; the other binds to a cell surface receptor called an asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR). ASGPR then drags the tethered extracellular protein into an intracellular endolysosome for disposal. ASGPRs typically bind complex sugars, including galactose and its derivative N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc). While Avilar was in stealth mode, one of its priorities was the design of better ASGPR-binding small molecules. “The team identified opportunities to not just harness this pathway, but to improve upon nature itself,” Avilar CEO Dan Grau says.
“We see a very large scale of opportunity here, with many potential targets,” says Avilar CEO Dan Grau. “There are so many targets that are either poorly served by existing modalities, or frankly in some cases, not served at all.” Avilar has not yet disclosed which targets or diseases it is working on. “But the space is large,” Grau says, spanning hundreds of extracellular proteins. “It wouldn’t surprise me if others begin to move in, just because of the scale of the opportunity. There’s enough room for a few companies in this very, very large space,” he adds.
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BridgeBio Pharma Secures Debt Financing Of $750M
Palo Alto-based BridgeBio Pharma has secured credit assistance worth as much as $750 million to move forward with its research and development efforts for the treatment of cancers and genetic diseases. Based on BridgeBio's current pipeline of programs, this total amount will be sufficient to carry over 30 drug development and discovery programs well into 2024. The definitive credit facility agreement it signed with a syndicate of lenders allows it to borrow up to $750 million, effectively bringing its spending capacity to more than $1.2 billion. The company reported its existing cash balance of $599.6 million in September.
"Since our founding, we have believed in the power and importance of innovative financing approaches to advance critical biomedical research and drug development, and we are grateful that our broad diversified pipeline enables us to do this. By bringing on this additional capital, we have the potential to help more people living with genetic diseases and cancers as quickly as possible," said Brian Stephenson, Ph.D., CFA, the chief financial officer of BridgeBio, in a statement. Immediately after the loan, BridgeBio Pharma And Helsinn Group Announce Strategic Collaboration To Co-Develop And Co-Commercialize BridgeBio’s Novel GPX4 Inhibitor In Multiple Cancer Tumor Types.
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