At­tempt­ing to bounce back af­ter mid-stage flop, Novus piv­ots to im­munol­o­gy with CD40L-fo­cused ac­qui­si­tion of Anelix­is

Fol­low­ing a mid-stage fail­ure of its acute oti­tis me­dia can­di­date back in June that sent its shares deep in­to pen­ny stock ter­ri­to­ry, Novus Ther­a­peu­tics has found what it be­lieves to be a new, ex­cit­ing path for­ward in im­munol­o­gy.

The Irvine, CA-based com­pa­ny, orig­i­nal­ly called Tokai Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, an­nounced Mon­day af­ter­noon the ac­qui­si­tion of Anelix­is Ther­a­peu­tics — a biotech that was spun out of the ALS Ther­a­py De­vel­op­ment In­sti­tute in Boston in 2015 — as well as $108 mil­lion in pri­vate place­ment fund­ing led by BVF Part­ners. Anelix­is’ lead pro­gram AT-1501, an an­ti-CD40L an­ti­body, will be cen­tral to Novus’ new fo­cus, and the com­pa­ny is bring­ing along David-Alexan­dre Gros to steer the ship as new CEO.

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