Octagon

最近，一家自身免疫性疾病生物技术公司正在关闭。Octagon Therapeutics的联合创始人兼首席执行Isaac Stoner，在LinkedIn上披露了Octagon公司关闭的决定。根据报道，这一决定是基于Octagon一个领先的B细胞免疫调节剂项目被取消优先级，以及高潜力管线未解决的生物学问题之后做出的。关键技术出问题了Octagon Therapeutics是一家私营的生物技术公司，最初专注于开发针对多种耐药性感染的抗生素，后来转向自身免疫性疾病和炎症性疾病的药物开发。Octagon使用新颖的方式研究功能生物学，利用一系列临床样本和专有的发现平台，阐明糖生物学在免疫病理学发展中的独特作用。Octagon基于这种方法开发了多个项目，并吸引了诺和诺德的关注。2022年9月，Octagon与诺和诺德建立了以炎症为重点的研究联盟。Octagon最领先的管线是OCT50，OCT50旨在恢复Siglec-2的内源性作用，选择性抑制自身反应性B细胞并重置免疫功能，以治疗多种自免疾病，包括SLE/CLE、多发性硬化症、干燥症等。但在最新信息披露当中，Octagon取消了OCT50的优先级（原因未披露），提出了下一代核心管线OCT102。OCT102是一款炎症候选药物，靶标未公开，旨在抑制CD8+ T细胞分泌炎性因子，包括IL-6、IL-7和1型干扰素。但是在OCT102的目标概念验证阶段，Octagon遇到了未解决的生物学问题。领先的OCT50被没有原因的放弃，OCT102又遇到生物学问题，这很可能预示着Octagon的生物学发现平台出了问题——这是没有办法解决的，或许这才是Octagon毫无挣扎便宣布关闭的原因。小结Octagon在2022年吸引到了诺和诺德的青睐，在去年还完成了1100万美元的融资，都表明Octagon选择自免方向非常正确。但是，两款管线都没能走到临床阶段就出了问题，这对于一家私营公司是很致命的问题，尤其是现在生物制药困难的融资情况下。一是面临底层技术的错误，二是面临困难的融资现况，干脆关闭及时止损或许更好。参考资料：1.https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/octagon-shuts-down-after-rd-challenges-put-it-behind-8-ball2.https://www.octagontherapeutics.com/science3.https://www.octagontherapeutics.com/pipeline4.https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/octagon-therapeutics-enters-inflammation-focused-research-alliance-with-novo-nordisk-301627501.html本周好文推荐如需转载请联系佰傲谷并在醒目位置注明出处········

Octagon Therapeutics formed a research alliance with Novo Nordisk in 2022.\n Octagon Therapeutics has thrown in the towel. The Novo Nordisk-allied autoimmune disease biotech is winding down after deprioritizing its lead program and running into unresolved biology questions.Isaac Stoner, the co-founder and CEO of Octagon, disclosed the decision to close the biotech on LinkedIn Monday. Stoner said the action followed “the deprioritization of a lead B cell immunomodulator program and unresolved biology questions around a high-potential pipeline effort.”Octagon initially focused on developing antibiotics for multidrug-resistant infections but later shifted its attention to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The pivot was built on evidence that the biotech could suppress cells that cause autoimmune disease—without disrupting healthy immune activities—by restoring the activity of immune checkpoint receptors.  OCT50 was the most advanced manifestation of that idea. Octagon designed the molecule to suppress autoreactive B cells that drive autoimmune conditions such as lupus and multiple sclerosis by restoring the natural regulatory role of Siglec-2.  Octagon got as far as selecting a development candidate for the OCT50 program before calling it quits, according to the biotech’s public pipeline. The next most advanced asset was OCT102, which was back at the target validation stage. Octagon designed OCT102 to suppress secretion of inflammatory cytokines involved in certain inflammatory diseases by acting on an undisclosed checkpoint. The biotech raised $11 million last year, adding to the smaller sums it pulled in across earlier financings. Octagon formed a research alliance with Novo in 2022. The company took part in Novo’s Co-creation Greenhouse accelerator program, demonstrating its ability to discover therapeutic targets and landing a chance to collaborate with the Danish drugmaker on cardiometabolic diseases. 

Octagon Therapeutics is winding down operations, its CEO posted on LinkedIn on Monday. The biotech, with operations in Cambridge, MA, and Providence, RI, had been working on programs in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, plus a partnership in cardiometabolic pathology with Novo Nordisk. But the nearly decade-old startup halted work on a lead B cell immunomodulator project and ran into “unresolved biology questions around a high-potential pipeline effort,” CEO Isaac Stoner wrote on LinkedIn. Stoner wrote that he and the board made the decision to shutter the company. The Octagon co-founder was on the board alongside Slater Technology Fund managing director Thorne Sparkman, ICG Life Sciences venture partner Peter Kiener, Stellular Bio founder Jonathan Thon and Alia Ventures partner Ronald Lennox. Stoner became an executive-in-residence at Slater Technology Fund in January, according to his LinkedIn profile. “The toughest part about this business is that you can execute perfectly and still confront a scientific no-go,” Stoner wrote on the LinkedIn post. “This decision is personally and professionally disappointing, and not the outcome that the patients we had hoped to serve deserved.” Multiple other biotech chief executives commented on Stoner’s post and commended the decision, along with well wishes for Stoner and his team on their next chapters. Octagon is at least the 10th biotech company to close its doors this year, following private startups like Kojin and Lyndra , and publicly-traded drug developers like Third Harmonic and Viracta . Octagon formed in 2016 with the intention to create antibiotics but shelved that mission a few years later to go after autoimmunity. “The company was founded on impressive academic pedigree and the management team had known each other for years. Our first program was based on a compelling approach to targeting central metabolism in the most dangerous bacterial pathogens,” Stoner wrote in 2019 . “However, as we put our heads down and began optimizing our interesting chemical hit, we watched the space further deteriorate,” Stoner wrote in that 2019 opinion piece in Endpoints News . The upstart had raised about $14 million to date, according to venture data firm PitchBook.