Neuroscience
Approved by the FDA in July to treat adults with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, Eli Lilly’s Kisunla reduced the brain swelling of patients in a late-stage trial following an adjusted dosing regimen.
The acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics gives AbbVie access to a Phase I anti-amyloid antibody as well as the biotech’s novel platform engineered for efficient blood-brain barrier transport.
Researchers have linked Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide to a 40% to 70% reduction in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis in a study of medical records from 1 million patients.
With an upfront payment of $50 million from Roche, the partnership will leverage Dyno Therapeutics’ in vivo gene therapy delivery technology, which synthesizes virus capsids with better functionality and manufacturability.
Jefferies analyst Peter Welford noted that Roche’s pharma group came just slightly ahead of consensus expectations, driven by strong performance of its multiple sclerosis therapy Ocrevus and eye injection Vabysmo.
Alto Neuroscience’s depression treatment failed to beat placebo just nine months after the biotech went public. The stunning failure called to mind Acelyrin, which faced a similar fate last year.
Roche drops a third Alzheimer’s candidate this year, terminating a partnership with UCB just four years after agreeing to work together on new treatments for the neurological disease.
Seaport Therapeutics, kick started by the former leaders of Karuna Therapeutics, has raised $225 million in an oversubscribed Series B to fund a pipeline of neuropsychiatric medicines.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman in a note to investors said the late-stage data for Vertex’s experimental non-opioid pain medication “reaffirms our confidence in the strength of suzetrigine’s profile.” However, William Blair analysts view these data as “an incremental positive” as the company faces challenges in targeting the acute pain market.
Wave Life Sciences in a Tuesday filing with the SEC said Takeda has elected to terminate its option to continue work on Wave’s WVE-003 clinical-stage Huntington’s disease program—a potential $5 billion commercial opportunity, according to the biotech.
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