News Briefing: 9/26 - 10/7

9/26 – Weight-loss Drug Developer BioAge Labs Went IPO

The clinical-stage company held its initial public offering (IPO) raising $198 million.¹ The company is developing its oral drug azelaprag, an apelin receptor (APJ) agonist, in combination with current weight-loss medications like Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy. Azelaprag improves metabolic and muscle function and has potential to significantly increase weight loss and improve body composition when combined with any incretin.² Its preclinical studies showed doubled weight loss for incretin drugs with improvements in body composition and muscle function. Its Phase 1b trial showed the drug promotes muscle metabolism and prevents muscle atrophy on bed rest in healthy older volunteers. The company has been conducting a Phase 2 study with Eli Lilly’s injectable Zepbound and expects to release the results in 2025.² It is also expecting to initiate a second Phase 2 study in combination with Wegovy in the first half of 2025.³

Reference

1.      https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/weight-loss-drug-developer-bioage-raises-198-mln-us-ipo-2024-09-26/

2.      https://ir.bioagelabs.com/news-releases/news-release-details/bioage-announces-170-million-oversubscribed-series-d-financing

3.      https://ir.bioagelabs.com/news-releases/news-release-details/bioage-announces-first-patient-dosed-strides-phase-2-clinical

9/30 – Roche’s Asset Purchase to Expand its Breast Cancer Portfolio

Roche has agreed to $850 million to Chinese-based biotechnology startup Regor Therapeutics to acquire its two breast cancer drugs.¹ One is CDK4/2 inhibitor, RGT-419B, in Phase 1 and another is Phase 1-ready CDK4 inhibitor, RGT-587. Data from Roche presentation to investors brands the drugs as next-generation CDK inhibitors with potential to surpass other CDK4/6 inhibitors like Pfizer’s Ibrance, Eli Lilly’s Verzenio, and Novartis’ Kisqali.² RGT-419B is shown to be the “best-in-class” CDK4 inhibitor with activity on CDK2 addressing a key mechanism of CDK4/6 inhibition resistance that causes progression after treatment with the first-generation drugs that have weak or no CDK2 activity.² It could also sidestep some side effects of CDK inhibitors.² Its Phase 1a single agent dose escalation study demonstrated single agent efficacy in 4 out of 12 patients who have progressed on previous CDK4/6 inhibitor treatments.³

Reference

1.      https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/roche-regor-cdk-breast-cancer-drug-deal/728410/

2.      https://assets.roche.com/f/176343/x/f513f69de2/pharma_day_20240930_final_online_v02.pdf

3.      https://www.regor.com/news/news.html

10/2 – Immunology Startup Triveni Bio Received Funds to Develop its Immune Drug Pipeline

Triveni Bio has raised $115 million in Series B funding following a $92 million Series A funding to develop its pipeline of antibody drugs for inflammatory diseases using its genetics-informed precision medicine approach.¹ Its atopic dermatitis drug, TRIV-509, differs from inflammation-targeting only IL-4R inhibitor drugs like Dupixent in its potential in targeting all three aspects of the disease - skin barrier dysfunction, inflammation and itch. It is a monoclonal antibody inhibitor targeting enzymes overexpressed in atopic dermatitis patients, kallikreins 5 and 7, and shows greater efficacy in treating the disease by inhibiting IL-4R alone in multiple preclinical models.² Triveni is expected to submit IND in the first quarter of 2025.

Reference

1.      https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/triveni-bio-atopic-dermatitis-eczema-series-b-financing/728605/

2.      https://triveni.bio/triveni-bio-raises-usd115-million-series-b-financing-to-expand-pipeline-of-therapeutics-addressing-immunological-and-inflammatory-i-and-i-disorders/

10/7 - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024 has been jointly awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation”. The two scientists discovered that a short 22-nt RNA molecule from the lin-4 gene in C. elegans without any protein production codon appeared to turn off lin-14 post-transcriptionally through antisense complementarity with the its mRNA. This made the first discovery of a new type of gene regulation by a previously unknown type of RNA, microRNA. Although it was initially thought that this peculiar mechanism of gene regulation was unique in C.^{1, 2} elegans only and likely absent in high-order animals like human, Ruvkun went on to discover that the let-7 gene microRNA was highly conserved and present throughout the animal kingdom,³ kicking off the field that led to the discovery of more than a thousand microRNA genes in humans today.

Reference

1.      https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(93)90529-Y

2.      https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(93)90530-4

3.      https://doi.org/10.1038/35040556