Monday, June 12, 2023 Daily Archives

Syncona launches 3rd gene therapy firm through $120m funding

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Ophthalmic gene therapy company Beacon Therapeutics has been launched by Syncona after a £96 million ($120 million) Series A funding round. Syncona Investment Management, a British closed-ended investment trust dedicated to life science investments, has a 65.3% stake in the business. Beacon is Syncona’s third gene therapy firm focused on treating retinal diseases, following Gyroscope and Nightstar. Beacon has been created by bringing together Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation’s (AGTC’s) late-stage X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) program with two pre-clinical programs. “By…

June 12, 2023

FDA says COVID-19 aided CGT recruitment

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The FDA said an unintentional consequence of the pandemic was it helped the organization recruit in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) space.   Peter Marks, the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told the audience at the BIO International Convention in Boston, Massachusetts last week an “unintentional consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it helped us to recruit in the CGT space.” The organization began assessing its…

June 12, 2023

Novartis bolstering renal pipeline in $3.2bn Chinook buy

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The deal will see Novartis add late-stage monoclonal antibody zigakibart for IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a rare, progressive chronic kidney disease. The $3.2 billion cash and share offering, expected to close later this year, will add several assets to Novartis’ late-stage pipeline, including the subcutaneous administered anti-APRIL monoclonal antibody (mAb) Zigakibart (BION-1301). The Swiss biopharma giant will also add an oral endothelin A receptor antagonist (ERA), atrasentan, currently in Phase III development for IgAN. “IgA Nephropathy is a devastating disease mostly…

June 12, 2023

BMS $30bn CAR-T vision boosted by MA plant approval

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The US FDA has approved a 244,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Devens, bringing a third CAR-T facility online for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). In February 2021, BMS announced it was adding a facility at its 89-acre Devens campus to support the production of the then recently approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy Breyanzi (liso-cel). Last week, the facility was added to plants in Bothell, Washington and Summit, New Jersey to commercially produce the therapy, winning approval from the US…

June 12, 2023