San Fran­cis­co-based Aeov­ian Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals has banked $37 mil­lion in Se­ries A fi­nanc­ing to launch its mTORC1 in­hibitor in­to a proof-of-con­cept for what the com­pa­ny says is an undis­closed rare CNS dis­ease.

Linked to a num­ber of ag­ing and nu­tri­ent-sens­ing process­es, the mTOR path­way has typ­i­cal­ly been seen as a rich tar­get for phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies hop­ing to make in­roads in lifes­pan/healthspan ex­ten­sion. The se­cre­cy be­hind the ‘undis­closed dis­ease’ is not un­usu­al in a field where re­search is of­ten paint­ed with the broad brush of ‘age-re­lat­ed dis­eases.’ Part of Aeov­ian’s IP comes from the Buck In­sti­tute in No­va­to, Cal­i­for­nia, an in­de­pen­dent re­search in­sti­tute ded­i­cat­ed sole­ly to study­ing con­nec­tions be­tween ag­ing and chron­ic dis­ease.

The mech­a­nisms be­hind mTOR — the mam­malian tar­get of ra­pamycin — are not ful­ly un­der­stood, but re­searchers be­lieve it plays key roles in cell me­tab­o­lism, growth and sur­vival, point­ing to a role in tu­mor for­ma­tion and type 2 di­a­betes, among oth­ers.

ven­Bio Part­ners and Sofinno­va In­vest­ments co-led the round, who joined found­ing in­vestors Apol­lo Health Ven­tures and Evotec SE.

Following the Supreme Court’s historic decision on Friday to overturn Americans’ constitutional right to an abortion after almost 50 years, Attorney General Merrick Garland sought to somewhat reassure women that states will not be able to ban the prescription drug sometimes used for abortions.

Following the decision, the New England Journal of Medicine also published an editorial strongly condemning the reversal, saying it “serves American families poorly, putting their health, safety, finances, and futures at risk.”

While European companies, including BioNTech, are focused on increasing vaccine access to African countries by setting up vaccine manufacturing facilities, the European Union is looking westward to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Speaking at a press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pédro Sanchez, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU is launching a new initiative for vaccines and medicines manufacturing in Latin America, to get drugs to Latin America and the Caribbean faster.

GSK, newly branded and soon-to-be demerged, shared interim results from its Phase II trial on its chronic hepatitis B treatment, one that it says has the “potential to lead to a functional cure.”

At a presentation at the EASL International Liver Congress, GSK shared that in around 450 patients who received its hep B drug bepirovirsen for 24 weeks, just under 30% had hepatitis B surface antigen and viral DNA levels that were too low to detect.

Despite whispers of a busy year for M&A, deal activity in the pharma space is actually down 30% on a semi-annualized basis, according to PwC’s latest report on deal activity. But don’t rule out larger deals in the second half of the year, the consultants said.

PwC pharmaceutical and life sciences consulting solutions leader Glenn Hunzinger expects to see Big Pharma companies picking up earlier stage companies to try and fill pipeline gaps ahead of a slew of big patent cliffs. Though a bear market continues to maul the biotech sector, Hunzinger said recent deals indicate that pharma companies are still paying above current trading prices.