Xilio plans to file INDs for its two lead candidates this year. (PDPics/Pixabay)
Xilio Therapeutics has raised $95 million to take IL-2 and CTLA-4 immunotherapies into clinical trials. The series C positions Xilio to provide early clinical validation of anti-cancer agents that are designed to remain inactive until they reach tumors.
Immuno-oncology drugs are typically given systemically, causing them to trigger immune responses that affect healthy and cancerous tissues alike. The resulting adverse events are unpleasant and can prevent physicians from administering the most efficacious dose. Patients suffer from both the side effects and worse outcomes due to the use of suboptimal doses.
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Feb 23, 2021 10:15am GuideTx’s LNP screening technology tags nanoparticles with DNA barcodes, which allows hundreds of nanoparticles to be screened in one experiment, in a single animal. (Beam Therapeutics)
Not all gene editing treatments are created equal that’s why Beam Therapeutics started out with multiple technologies from the likes of MIT, Harvard University, the Broad Institute and Editas Medicine. Now, it’s adding another arrow to its drug delivery quiver with its $120 million acquisition of GuideTx, a Georgia Tech spinout.
The all-stock deal will see Beam fork over $120 million upfront, but GuideTx shareholders could yield up to $320 million more in milestone payments. Beam is betting that adding GuideTx’s lipid nanoparticle (LNP) drug delivery vehicles to the mix will boost the reach of its genetic medicines into new tissues and disease areas.
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The inner ear (Public Domain)
A phase 3 clinical trial of Otonomy’s Otividex in inner ear condition Ménière s disease has missed its primary endpoint. The setback comes almost four years after the generation of mixed data from two earlier phase 3 studies persuaded Otonomy to roll the dice on another pivotal clinical trial.
Investigators randomized 148 patients with Ménière s, an inner ear disease that causes symptoms including vertigo, to receive a single intratympanic injection of a sustained-release formulation of the steroid dexamethasone or placebo. The primary endpoint assessed the number of vertigo days, as recorded in patient diaries, in month three.