You can now count the bio­phar­ma gi­ant Roche among the grow­ing num­ber of play­ers fas­ci­nat­ed by the po­ten­tial of NL­RP3 in­hi­bi­tion.

James Sabry, Genen­tech

Their big Cal­i­for­nia sub­sidiary Genen­tech has snapped up a lit­tle San Diego-based biotech called Je­cure Ther­a­peu­tics, which came out of qui­et time with a $20 mil­lion launch round from Ver­sant and a big ap­petite for NASH re­search. The ven­ture group had been drawn in by an ex­pe­ri­enced biotech team that had built and sold Quan­ti­cel to Cel­gene for close to $485 mil­lion.

They’ve been key­ing off the lab work of sci­en­tif­ic founder Ariel Feld­stein, the di­vi­sion chief of gas­troen­terol­o­gy at the UCSD School of Med­i­cine and a top in­ves­ti­ga­tor in he­pa­tol­ogy.

This time around, we don’t know what the pri­vate out­fit went for. But with on­ly a small amount bet so far by a sin­gle in­vestor, even a big mul­ti­ple for the in­vestors could on­ly amount to a bite-sized pre­clin­i­cal snack for the likes of Roche.

James Sabry, who’s now run­ning the whole BD show at Roche/Genen­tech, says the ac­qui­si­tion builds on their “ex­per­tise in NL­RP3 bi­ol­o­gy,” which has been put in­to the spot­light by a batch of up­starts look­ing to make a name for them­selves.

Just a few days ago I cov­ered the $46 mil­lion raise for In­fla­zome, a UK-based out­fit that was look­ing to go up­stream of the en­tire IL-1 be­ta path­way and hit the NL­RP3 tar­get in fight­ing in­flam­ma­tion. No­var­tis has scored some pos­i­tive late-stage da­ta on IL-1 for gout and car­dio, help­ing to val­i­date the path­way for the star­tups com­ing in from be­hind.

NodThera and IFM have al­so been mak­ing progress in this field, while there’s some pre­clin­i­cal in­fo to sug­gest that an ul­tra-low carb ke­to­genic di­et can al­so specif­i­cal­ly hit NL­RP3 for an an­ti-in­flam­ma­to­ry re­sponse — a fol­lowup to the decades of re­search work that’s backed ke­to for pe­di­atric epilep­sy.

A small, Santa Ana-based biotech created in 2017 is looking to enter a SPAC deal as it lays out plans to begin trials in its lead cell therapy candidates and bring on new executives.

Graf Acquisition Corp. IV and NKGen Biotech announced Thursday, with few other details, that the two companies signed a non-binding letter of intent to “pursue a business combination.” Graf Acquisition II and III withdrew their IPOs last year.

The FDA has rejected Incyte’s extended-release formulation of ruxolitinib tablets, in a surprise setback for the company’s plans to build on its blockbuster Jakafi franchise.

The ruxolitinib XR tablets are designed to be taken once a day, whereas Jakafi is indicated for twice daily dosage (although some patients can take it once daily).

According to Incyte, the FDA acknowledged in its complete response letter that the study submitted in the NDA “met its objective of bioequivalence based on area under the curve (AUC) parameters but identified additional requirements for approval.”

Cyclerion Therapeutics may have the design of a Phase IIb study ready to go, but it’s scrambling for a way to fund it.

The company said in a press release that it’s “actively evaluating the best combination of capital, capabilities, and transactions available to it to advance the development of zagociguat,” its lead candidate for a rare, genetic mitochondrial disease known as MELAS.

In a separate SEC filing, Cyclerion once again flagged “substantial doubt about (its) ability to continue as a going concern.” As of the end of 2022, it had cash and cash equivalents of only $13.4 million.