Paul Berns and Laura Deming
February 8, 2022 05:00 AM ESTUpdated 06:50 AM
Startups

Ex­clu­sive: ARCH-backed ex­er­cise-in-a-pill start­up qui­et­ly laid off half its staff, ‘ful­ly piv­ot­ed’ in Oc­to­ber

Jason Mast

Editor

In December 2019, a tiny decade-old California startup known as Cardero Therapeutics announced a new name — Epirium Bio — a new direction and $85 million in cash from blue-chip VCs such as ARCH and Vertex Ventures.

The company’s founders had a bold claim that a common type of anti-oxidant found in chocolate and grapes actually worked by influencing a previously undiscovered human hormone, the first of its kind discovered in decades. Activating that hormone, they claimed, could restore mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, and restore muscle tissue. It was effectively exercise-in-a-pill.

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December 5, 2022 06:00 AM EST

2023 Spot­light on the Fu­ture of Drug De­vel­op­ment for Small and Mid-Sized Biotechs

Allucent

In the context of today’s global economic environment, there is an increasing need to work smarter, faster and leaner across all facets of the life sciences industry.  This is particularly true for small and mid-sized biotech companies, many of which are facing declining valuations and competing for increasingly limited funding to propel their science forward.  It is important to recognize that within this framework, many of these smaller companies already find themselves resource-challenged to design and manage clinical studies themselves because they don’t have large teams or in-house experts in navigating the various aspects of the drug development journey. This can be particularly challenging for the most complex and difficult to treat diseases where no previous pathway exists and patients are urgently awaiting breakthroughs.

Rick Modi, Affinia Therapeutics CEO
December 5, 2022 08:26 AM ESTUpdated 08:58 AM
Financing
Startups
Cell/Gene Tx

Ver­tex-part­nered gene ther­a­py biotech Affinia scraps IPO plans

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

Affinia Therapeutics has ditched its plans to go public in a relatively closed-door market that has not favored Nasdaq debuts for the drug development industry most of this year. A pandemic surge in 2020 and 2021 opened the doors for many preclinical startups, which caught Affinia’s attention and gave the gene therapy biotech confidence in the beginning days of 2022 to send in its S-1.

But on Friday, Affinia threw in the S-1 towel and concluded now is not the time to step onto Wall Street. The biotech has put out few public announcements since the spring of this year. Endpoints News picked the startup as one of its 11 biotechs to watch last year.

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December 1, 2022 03:46 PM ESTUpdated 04:58 PM
FDA+

Up­dat­ed: FDA re­mains silent on or­phan drug ex­clu­siv­i­ty af­ter last year's court loss

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

Since losing a controversial court case over orphan drug exclusivity last year, the FDA’s Office of Orphan Products Development has remained entirely silent on orphan exclusivity for any product approved since last November, leaving many sponsors in limbo on what to expect.

That silence means that for more than 70 orphan-designated indications for more than 60 products, OOPD has issued no public determination on the seven-year orphan exclusivity in the Orange Book, and no new listings of orphan exclusivity appear in OOPD’s searchable database, as highlighted recently by George O’Brien, a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington, DC office.

Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO (Efren Landaos/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images)
December 5, 2022 03:04 PM EST
Pharma
Manufacturing

Pfiz­er makes an­oth­er bil­lion-dol­lar in­vest­ment in Eu­rope and ex­pands again in Michi­gan

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

Pfizer is continuing its run of manufacturing site expansions with two new large investments in the US and Europe.

The New York-based pharma giant’s site in Kalamazoo, MI, has seen a lot of attention over the past year. As a major piece of the manufacturing network for Covid-19 vaccines and antivirals, Pfizer is gearing up to place more money into the site. Pfizer announced it will place $750 million into the facility, mainly to establish “modular aseptic processing” (MAP) production and create around 300 jobs at the site.

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Vas Narasimhan, Novartis CEO (Thibault Camus/AP Images, Pool)
December 5, 2022 01:46 PM ESTUpdated 02:21 PM
Pharma
FDA+

No­var­tis bol­sters Plu­vic­to's case in prostate can­cer with PhI­II re­sults

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

The prognosis is poor for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. Novartis wants to change that by making its recently approved Pluvicto available to patients earlier in their course of treatment.

The Swiss pharma giant unveiled Phase III results Monday suggesting that Pluvicto was able to halt disease progression in certain prostate cancer patients when administered after androgen-receptor pathway inhibitor (ARPI) therapy, but without prior taxane-based chemotherapy. The drug is currently approved for patients after they’ve received both ARPI and chemo.

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December 5, 2022 11:31 AM EST
Financing
Startups
R&D

Pfiz­er-backed Me­di­ar Ther­a­peu­tics ropes in an­oth­er Big Phar­ma in­vestor

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

A biotech centered on treating fibrosis — born out of Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — has received a financial boost.

According to an SEC filing, the company has raised $31,761,186 in its latest funding round, which includes 17 investors. The filing lists six names attached to the company, including Meredith Fisher, a partner at Mass General Brigham Ventures and Mediar’s acting CEO.

December 5, 2022 07:35 AM ESTUpdated 07:47 AM
Deals

Af­ter M&A fell through, Ther­a­peu­tic­sMD sells hor­mone ther­a­py, con­tra­cep­tive ring for $140M cash plus roy­al­ties

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

TherapeuticsMD, a women’s health company whose one-time billion-dollar valuation seems a distant memory as its blockbuster aspirations petered out, is finally cashing out.

Australia’s Mayne Pharma is paying $140 million upfront to license essentially TherapeuticsMD’s whole portfolio, including two prescription drugs that treat conditions relating to menopause, a contraceptive vaginal ring as well as its prescription prenatal vitamin brands.

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Illustration: Assistant Editor Kathy Wong for Endpoints News
December 1, 2022 07:03 AM ESTUpdated 05:28 PM
R&D
In Focus

As mon­ey pours in­to dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics, in­sur­ance cov­er­age crawls

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor



Talk therapy didn’t help Lily with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. But a video game did.

As the 10-year-old zooms through icy waters and targets flying creatures on the snow-capped planet Frigidus, she builds attention skills, thanks to Akili Interactive Labs’ video game EndeavorRx. She’s now less anxious and scattered, allowing her to stay on a low dose of ADHD medication, according to her mom Violet Vu.

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December 3, 2022 06:00 AM ESTUpdated 14 hours ago
Weekly

Big week for Alzheimer’s da­ta; As­traZeneca buys cell ther­a­py start­up; Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics hits a pay­er wall; and more

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.

You may start to notice more stories exclusively available to Premium subscribers. This week alone, paid subscribers can read our in-depth reporting on Alzheimer’s data, digital therapeutics and Allogene’s cell therapy for solid tumors, as well as scoops on Twitter ads and Catalent. With your support, we can keep growing our team and spend more time on quality work. We have both individual and company plans available — check them out to unlock the full Endpoints experience.

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Ex­clu­sive: ARCH-backed ex­er­cise-in-a-pill start­up qui­et­ly laid off half its staff, ‘ful­ly piv­ot­ed’ in Oc­to­ber

2023 Spot­light on the Fu­ture of Drug De­vel­op­ment for Small and Mid-Sized Biotechs

Ver­tex-part­nered gene ther­a­py biotech Affinia scraps IPO plans

Up­dat­ed: FDA re­mains silent on or­phan drug ex­clu­siv­i­ty af­ter last year's court loss

Pfiz­er makes an­oth­er bil­lion-dol­lar in­vest­ment in Eu­rope and ex­pands again in Michi­gan

No­var­tis bol­sters Plu­vic­to's case in prostate can­cer with PhI­II re­sults

Pfiz­er-backed Me­di­ar Ther­a­peu­tics ropes in an­oth­er Big Phar­ma in­vestor

Af­ter M&A fell through, Ther­a­peu­tic­sMD sells hor­mone ther­a­py, con­tra­cep­tive ring for $140M cash plus roy­al­ties

As mon­ey pours in­to dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics, in­sur­ance cov­er­age crawls

Big week for Alzheimer’s da­ta; As­traZeneca buys cell ther­a­py start­up; Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics hits a pay­er wall; and more