On Monday, CinCor Pharma drummed up positive Phase II data for its hypertension drug baxdrostat, following it later that day with a public offering — as many other public biotechs with positive readouts have done with astounding frequency in the lukewarm market conditions.

The size of that raise? $225 million, CinCor said today in a press release. The biotech had originally proposed its public offering at six million shares, but said it was upsized to 7.5 million.

Vir Biotechnology is moving away from some of its Covid-19 ambitions.

Months after the FDA revoked the emergency use authorization on Vir and GSK’s monoclonal antibody sotrovimab, Vir announced Tuesday that it no longer plans to submit a Biologics License Application for the therapy.

Additionally, Vir announced it does not plan to pursue the Phase III COMET-STAR prophylaxis trial. The trial aimed to administer sotrovimab to uninfected adults at high risk of Covid-19 to prevent symptomatic infection.

Over the past few years, the promise of blocking CD47 — a “don’t eat me” signal co-opted by cancer cells — has sent drugmakers big and small into a frenzy. But one biotech is now bowing out.

Zai Lab is deprioritizing ZL-1201, its CD47 inhibitor, scrapping plans for a Phase II trial. It will now “pursue out-licensing opportunities,” the company said in its Q2 update. The decision was based on a review of the competitive landscape, it added.

UK-based Verona Pharma’s COPD drug, ensifentrine, has succeeded in its Phase III trial, paving the way for a possible FDA approval.

In Verona’s Phase III ENHANCE-2 study, roughly 800 patients with moderate to severe COPD received ensifentrine or placebo through a nebulizer twice a day for 24 weeks. At 12 hours post-treatment on week 12, the placebo-corrected change in forced expiratory volume (FEV1) — a standard measure of lung function that tests how much breath one can forcefully exhale in one second — was 94 mL, leading the trial to meet its primary endpoint.

In its Q2 report Monday, Reata Pharmaceuticals said that the FDA continues to have concerns about its Friedreich’s ataxia drug.

On Tuesday, those concerns manifested in a three-month delay on an FDA approval decision. Reata’s new FDA decision deadline for its Friedreich’s ataxia drug, omaveloxolone, is the end of February 2023, it announced this morning.

In the Q2 report, Reata noted that the FDA was concerned about the efficacy of omaveloxolone. The Plano, TX-based biotech said that in response to those concerns, it submitted additional data from its clinical trial. But in order to review that new data, the FDA needs more time, hence the three-month delay, Reata said Tuesday morning.

UniQure has been working on a gene therapy for Huntington’s disease for some time, and as the field has suffered through multiple failures, the company’s program has been set back.

The biotech announced Monday morning that back in July, it had observed “suspected, unexpected severe adverse reactions”, or SUSARs, in two patients after they were treated with the “higher dose” of a gene therapy candidate, AMT-130, in a European Phase Ib/II clinical trial. A third patient, who was treated back in March in the US, had their side effect deemed not related to the candidate, but it then was reclassified as a severe adverse reaction after review.

Reata Pharmaceuticals is facing an FDA wall on its small molecule candidate to treat Friedreich’s ataxia, omaveloxolone. According to the company’s Q2 report, the FDA might still not be sold on the drug.

“[The FDA] continues to have concerns regarding the strength of the efficacy evidence. The FDA did not identify any significant clinical safety issues. The FDA stated that the safety review is ongoing, and they are continuing to evaluate the cardiac safety of omaveloxolone in patients with Friedreich’s ataxia. They have not identified any other major safety concerns at this stage of their review,” the Q2 report said.