Plus, news about Amicus Therapeutics, Fosun Pharma, Duality Biotherapeutics, BioNTech and C4 Therapeutics.
👁️ Abeona drops eye gene therapies, pivots to solid tumor T cell therapy:
The biotech, which is known for marketing the rare skin disease gene therapy Zevaskyn,
said
it’s shifting development efforts to ABO-701, which is a PSMA-targeted T cell therapy for prostate cancer. At the same time, Abeona said it was dropping its line of AAV gene therapies for eye diseases. The platform underlying the prostate cancer therapy is meant to “overcome the limitations of CAR and TCR approaches,” according to Abeona, and was developed by University of Southern California physician-scientist Preet Chaudhary. —
Lei Lei Wu
🥛
AstraZeneca’s rare disease drug passes Phase 3 test:
Just over 31% of patients with hypoparathyroidism treated with eneboparatide achieved full normalization of blood calcium levels and independence from supplementation at 24 weeks, compared with 5.9% of placebo patients. The disease causes low calcium and high phosphorus levels in the blood, leading to a host of symptoms, including muscle aches and memory problems.
The study
also met all key secondary endpoints. The long-term extension period is ongoing. —
Ayisha Sharma
👋 Amicus Therapeutics to lay off 11% of staff following buyout:
A WARN notice with the New Jersey state government
said
that the company would lay off 58 employees between August and October of this year. As of the end of 2025, Amicus had 511 full-time employees, the biotech said in an SEC filing. Last December, BioMarin
announced
it would acquire Amicus for $4.8 billion. The transaction
closed
at the end of April. —
Max Gelman
🧠 Fosun Pharma does another Alzheimer’s deal:
The Shanghai company could take an Alzheimer’s drug that goes after the same mechanism as Viagra into the US and other markets. The drugmaker is teaming up with Korean biotech AriBio on a candidate, called AR1001, that will have Phase 3 data this year. Fosun could pay a $60 million option fee and up to $180 million in further upfront and regulatory milestones. AriBio has done previous deals on the drug
for other regions
. Fosun, which has
global expansion ambitions
, did a
deal in December
for a different Alzheimer’s drug that had previously been approved in China.
— Kyle LaHucik
🤝 Update on Duality Biotherapeutics’ ADC pact with BioNTech:
The Chinese biotech chose to split costs and profit/loss sharing in the US with BioNTech on their partnered B7-H3 antibody-drug conjugate. The company elected to opt in because its board believes the candidate, known as
BNT324/DB-1311
, has “substantial commercial potential in the United States,” according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange
filing
. The asset is part of a broader, up-to
$1.5 billion
deal outlined in 2023.
— Kyle LaHucik
✂️
C4 Therapeutics shelves targeted lung cancer agent:
The protein degradation biotech
said
it won’t move forward with an EGFR L858R degrader called CFT8919 outside of Greater China, where it has a partnership with Betta Pharmaceuticals. The company said that it made its decision “based on the evolving treatment landscape for EGFR mutated non-small-cell lung cancer, capital priorities, and available clinical data to date.” The agent is one of two clinical assets in C4T’s pipeline, following the company’s lead multiple myeloma asset cemsidomide. —
Lei Lei Wu