Plus, news about Interius BioTherapeutics, Hope Medicine, PMV Pharmaceuticals, Epitopea, Alyssum Therapeutics and a new dementia trial accelerator in the UK:
Bayer exercises option to develop heart drug with Dewpoint Therapeutics: The companies, which first teamed up in 2019, now plan to develop a therapy for dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease. Bayer is paying $424 million in upfront and milestone payments. — Jaimy Lee
Viking Therapeutics is already thinking about an obesity launch: The company plans to meet with the FDA before the end of the year to discuss Phase 3 plans for its subcutaneous GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, VK2735, according to remarks made by CEO Brian Lian on Wednesday’s earnings call. Viking is already in conversation with manufacturers, and Lian said he’s confident the company will be able to supply “a blockbuster-sized product at the appropriate time.” Viking is also launching a Phase 2 trial this quarter for an oral version of VK2735. Lian described the experimental oral medicine as more of an “add-on” to the portfolio, while the subcutaneous version would be the “anchor piece.” — Nicole DeFeudis
Interius BioTherapeutics doses first ever patient with in vivo CAR-T: The biotech gave an in vivo CAR-T therapy to a patient enrolled in a Phase 1 study of INT2104, which it’s developing for B cell cancers. The trial, which is being run in Australia, is the first test of its kind. Umoja Biopharma has said it plans to dose a patient in its US-based study of its own in vivo CAR-T therapy by the end of this year. — Lei Lei Wu
Hope Medicine touts interim data for endometriosis treatment: The company’s monoclonal antibody, dubbed HMI-115, demonstrated statistically significant improvement in endometriosis pain at 12 weeks. The Phase 2 trial enrolled 142 female patients in the US, Poland and China. The mean dysmenorrhea pain score was reduced by 42%, and non-menstrual pelvic pain score was reduced by 50%. Hope CEO Nathan Chen said the company plans to “move quickly” toward global Phase 3 trials. — Katherine Lewin
PMV Pharmaceuticals discontinues early-stage cancer trial: Citing toxicities and limited clinical benefit, the company abandoned its Phase 1b study assessing rezatapopt and Merck’s Keytruda. It had been testing the combo in patients with advanced solid tumors harboring a TP53 Y220C mutation. PMV said enrollment for a Phase 2 trial evaluating rezatapopt as a monotherapy for patients with TP53 Y220C and KRAS wild-type advanced solid tumors is still on track. — Katherine Lewin
Epitopea closes $31M pre-Series A: With today’s round, the cancer biotech has raised more than $45 million. The funds are set to go toward its preclinical discovery work in solid tumors and clinical development plans for its RNA-based immunotherapies. — Katherine Lewin
Alyssum Therapeutics emerges from stealth with $26M Series A: The Cambridge, MA-based biotech’s lead asset is AT-1965, a clinical-stage small molecule CMTR2 inhibitor. This round was led by co-founder Patrick Soon-Shiong and Accel, Famy and Navam Capital. — Katherine Lewin
UK government pours £20M into dementia trial accelerator: The new initiative aims to increase the number of participants in late-stage dementia studies to the tens of thousands and “address pharma-identified roadblocks” to running the trials. The Dementia Trials Accelerator’s objectives include creating a biomarker toolbox and extending trial enrollment to community settings. — Ayisha Sharma