Plus, news about Blue Lake, Bambusa, Inhibikase Therapeutics and Olema Oncology:
🛑 Sarepta terminates Elevidys trial with Hansa Biopharma’s imlifidase
: The study was examining whether Hansa’s imlifidase, an IgG antibody-cleaving enzyme, could help reduce certain antibodies that prevent patients from receiving the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy. Sarepta axed the trial due to a “business decision,” according to an
update
this week to the federal clinical trials database. The study enrolled five patients, against an original target of six.
“The study ended but the partnership remains — we’re working with Hansa on next steps for the program,” a Sarepta spokesperson told
Endpoints News
. The trial was being run in Europe, and was paused earlier this year
along with other studies
after Sarepta reported the first death of a patient receiving Elevidys. Hansa
presented data
from three patients on the trial in August, showing that they could receive Elevidys. However, expression levels of the shortened muscle protein expressed by Elevidys was lower than in other trials with the gene therapy. —
Kyle LaHucik & Lei Lei Wu
✂️ Moderna cuts three programs:
The company announced on Thursday that it is discontinuing two mid-stage vaccines for herpes simplex virus and varicella-zoster virus, as well as an early-stage candidate for glycogen storage disease type 1a. President Stephen Hoge didn’t go into detail on the decisions during an analyst event on Thursday, but said that “it didn’t feel like the commercial opportunity justified the level of investment necessarily.”
— Nicole DeFeudis
🔵 Blue Lake gets partial FDA hold lifted on RSV vaccine for kids:
The trial hold was placed more than a year ago after suspected cases of vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease sprung up in Moderna’s pediatric RSV study. The holds excluded companies from enrolling kids who tested negative for RSV exposure or who were under two years old. A spokesperson from Moderna said the company’s pediatric RSV studies remain on hold. —
Max Bayer
💵 Bambusa nabs more funding:
The bispecific antibody developer increased its total funding from about $90 million to approximately $140 million. This is with additional support from existing investors like RA Capital, Redmile and KKR’s Dawn Biopharma, CEO Shanshan Xu told
Endpoints News
. She started
Bambusa
after serving as a VP at BioNTech. The Boston biotech
said
it will use the money for its clinical-stage dermatology and respiratory drugs BBT001 and BBT002, and its earlier-stage candidates BBT003 and BBT004 for gastroenterology and rheumatology.
— Kyle LaHucik
💰 Inhibikase Therapeutics prices $100M offering:
The Delaware biotech
priced
the offering after saying Thursday night it would move IKT-001 into a global
Phase 3
for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The company had
$77.3 million
at the end of September. The Phase 3 will begin in the first quarter of next year. The biotech’s share price
$IKT
was up about 16% in pre-market trading on Friday.
— Kyle LaHucik
💰 Olema Oncology closes $218.5M offering:
The San Francisco biotech is working on treatments for breast cancer and other conditions. The offering was
priced
at $19 per share
$OLMA
. The biotech’s shares closed up 13% to $22.01 on Thursday.
— Kyle LaHucik