Today Stories

Compass Pathways has announced that its investigational psilocybin therapy, COMP360, met the primary endpoint in its Phase 3 COMP005 trial for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The study demonstrated a statistically significant 3.6-point reduction in depressive symptoms on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) compared to placebo after six weeks . Despite this clinical success, investor response was muted, with shares declining amid concerns over the lack of detailed data and the impact of regulatory scrutiny on psychedelic treatments. The FDA's recent rejection of a similar therapy due to issues with functional unblinding has heightened caution in the sector . COMP360, a synthetic formulation of psilocybin, has received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA and…

AstraZeneca has entered a strategic research collaboration with China's CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, aiming to accelerate the discovery of novel oral therapies for chronic diseases. The partnership, valued at up to $5.33 billion, focuses on leveraging CSPC's AI-driven drug discovery platform to identify pre-clinical candidates, including a small molecule oral therapy for immunological disorders . Under the agreement, CSPC will receive an upfront payment of $110 million and is eligible for up to $1.62 billion in development milestone payments and $3.6 billion in sales-based milestones, along with potential royalties on future sales . AstraZeneca will have the option to exclusively license and commercialize any successful candidates globally. The research will be conducted at CSPC's facilities…

Fortrea and Emery Pharma have announced a strategic collaboration to conduct FDA-compliant drug-drug interaction (DDI) studies utilizing rifampin. This partnership aims to address the regulatory challenges posed by nitrosamine impurities, specifically 1-methyl-4-nitrosopiperazine (MNP), found in rifampin formulations. These impurities had previously led to the suspension of rifampin's use in healthy volunteer DDI studies due to safety concerns. Rifampin is a potent inducer of cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) enzymes and has been a cornerstone in evaluating the metabolic interactions of new drug candidates. However, the detection of MNP above acceptable intake limits necessitated the exploration of alternative inducers, such as phenytoin and carbamazepine. These alternatives, while viable, do not…

Eli Lilly has announced its intention to acquire Verve Therapeutics, a biotechnology company specializing in gene-editing therapies for cardiovascular diseases, in a deal valued at up to $1.3 billion. The agreement includes an upfront payment of approximately $1 billion, offering $10.50 per share—a 113% premium over Verve's 30-day average stock price. Additionally, shareholders may receive up to $3.00 per share through a non-tradeable contingent value right (CVR), contingent upon the advancement of Verve's lead therapy, VERVE-102, into a Phase 3 clinical trial within ten years . VERVE-102 is an innovative in vivo gene-editing therapy targeting the PCSK9 gene, which plays a crucial role in regulating cholesterol levels. Currently in Phase 1b clinical trials, the therapy has received Fast Tr…

Accelerate@Babraham has unveiled its 2025 cohort, selecting five pioneering life science ventures from a competitive pool of 37 applicants—marking a 50% surge in interest. Now in its seventh year, the accelerator at Babraham Research Campus continues to nurture early-stage innovation, having already supported 32 companies and helped raise over £100m. This year’s cohort includes: AAB Research, developing EV-based cancer therapies; AmnioCam, offering a scalable stem cell-based solution for chronic wound care; Cycle Therapeutics, innovating endometriosis treatment via menstrual fluid analytics; MabGalaxy, using AI to expedite antibody drug discovery; and Sysora Health, tackling gum disease with precision antibacterial gels. The programme offers an 8-week bespoke curriculum, lab space for a ye…

The International Photodynamic Association (IPA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Stuart Bond, Consultant Antimicrobial Pharmacist and Director of Innovation at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, has been awarded the prestigious President’s Award at the 19th World Congress of the IPA, held this year in Shanghai, China. The President’s Award is one of the IPA’s highest honours, reserved for individuals whose work is making a transformational impact on healthcare through photodynamic therapy. Dr. Bond received this distinguished honour in recognition of his leadership in advancing the use of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT, also known as photodisinfection) for infection prevention within the UK's National Health Service (NHS). His pioneering work led to the first implementation of th…

Cure51, a Paris-based Techbio company decoding the biology of cancer “Outliers” – patients who beat aggressive cancers – has significantly accelerated its genomic data analysis by integrating NVIDIA’s cutting-edge GPU computing. Benchmarking with NVIDIA H100 GPUs and Parabricks tools delivered a 17x speed boost and halved processing costs compared to traditional CPU workflows. This leap is critical to Cure51’s Rosalind Study, launched in 2023, which aims to build the world’s largest dataset of cancer super-responders. With Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) at its core, read alignment was a key bottleneck – until now. GPU acceleration allows Cure51 to process data from thousands of samples efficiently, preserving quality while cutting time-to-insight. By adopting Parabricks, Cure51 seamlessly sc…

Kingston University has secured a Royal Society of Chemistry grant of nearly £10,000 to spearhead a year-long initiative focused on improving sustainability in chemical laboratory research. The project, led by Dr Gemma Shearman from the School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry, involves the development of a web-based app that enables students and researchers to evaluate and enhance the environmental impact of their lab experiments. The innovative tool allows users to input chemicals, consumables, and equipment used in experiments to generate a downloadable sticker summarising the experiment’s sustainability footprint and suggestions for improvement. It addresses a critical gap in undergraduate training by incorporating environmental considerations alongside existing risk assessments…

Northern Gritstone has committed £1.8 million to Apini, a University of Manchester spinout focused on treating chronic inflammatory conditions like Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Apini is the first company to emerge from Syncona’s Slingshot Therapeutics accelerator, which launched in November 2024 with £12.5 million to support promising academic research. Apini's therapeutic approach targets eNAMPT, an enzyme linked to inflammation, aiming to treat disease without inducing immune suppression—a significant advancement over current options. The programme was founded by Professor Sam Butterworth, known for developing the globally used cancer drug Tagrisso. The funding from Northern Gritstone, alongside Syncona, will be delivered in three milestone-based tranches. Northern Gritstone’s…

Oracle has announced major advancements in its Randomization and Trial Supply Management (RTSM) solution, introducing vendor-agnostic interoperability and drug pooling capabilities. These innovations enable real-time drug inventory management across multiple clinical trials and vendors—cutting waste and accelerating timelines. Sponsors and CROs can now use the same investigational product across different studies, with seamless integration to leading supply providers like SAP, Almac, Fisher Clinical Services, Catalent, and PMD. Built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, RTSM supports end-to-end automation in drug supply ordering, tracking, and allocation. The enhancements reflect Oracle’s commitment to open, connected systems and its broader vision to unify clinical and health applications. Wit…

GSK has partnered with IT services provider adesso to develop DREAM (Digital Reminders for Adherence of Medicines and Vaccines), a digital solution designed to help patients stay on track with medication and vaccination schedules. Originally launched in five pilot markets, DREAM now operates in 23 countries, including the UK, Spain, and Italy. The system delivers personalised, user-friendly reminders to patients, addressing a key healthcare challenge: improving treatment adherence. DREAM was developed with scalability in mind, allowing it to meet regulatory needs across multiple global markets. GSK praised adesso’s agile, committed approach and technological expertise, which helped bring DREAM to life. The collaboration has been ongoing for 18 months and continues to expand, laying the gro…

Sanofi announced today that the U.S. FDA has granted orphan drug designation to rilzabrutinib for the treatment of sickle cell disease, marking its fourth orphan status for this investigational Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor. The oral, reversible BTK inhibitor targets immune system modulation and aims to reduce vaso-occlusive crises—a major source of pain and complications in sickle cell patients. Rilzabrutinib is also under regulatory review in the US, EU, and China for immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), with an FDA decision expected by August 29, 2025. Previous designations include approvals for ITP, warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (wAIHA), and IgG4-related disease. Preclinical data presented at ASH 2024 demonstrated rilzabrutinib’s potential to reduce inflammation and blood vesse…

The University of Hull is establishing a £48m internationally leading translational wound research centre in East Yorkshire.  With a consortium of industry partners, the Wound Innovation Centre (WIC) will be at the forefront of global wound research. Research carried out at the centre will transform the quality of life for those impacted by chronic wounds.  The University has been awarded £16m from the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund. The centre will be match funded by industry partners including Polaroid Therapeutics (PTx) and Reckitt, creating a £48m research facility in East Yorkshire.  Currently the NHS spends approximately £8.3 billion per year on wound care, more than both obesity and cancer. There is a real and increasing need for effective wound care treatment, regionally,…

Sanofi announces the completion of its acquisition of DR-0201, a targeted bispecific myeloid cell engager, from Dren Bio, Inc., a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The acquisition bolsters Sanofi’s ambition to become the foremost immunology company and broadens the company’s leading immunology pipeline. DR-0201, now named SAR448501, has shown robust B-cell depletion in pre-clinical and early clinical studies. The potential first-in-class targeted bispecific myeloid cell engager targets and engages specific tissue-resident and trafficking myeloid cells to induce deep B-cell depletion via targeted phagocytosis. Recent pre-clinical and early clinical study data in autoimmune diseases suggest that deep B-cell depletion has the potential to reset the adaptive immune system, lead…

21 May 2025 – Ramsey, Isle of Man – Juvenescence Ltd., a clinical-stage biotech leveraging AI to target age-related diseases, has announced the successful first close of its Series B-1 financing round, raising $76 million. The round was led by Abu Dhabi-based M42, which also enters a strategic partnership with Juvenescence to advance AI-driven therapeutics. The fresh capital will propel Juvenescence’s pipeline of age-related disease therapies into later-stage clinical trials, with the second tranche of the Series B-1 round expected to close in Q3 2025. This financing follows the announcement of a landmark collaboration between Juvenescence and M42, aimed at establishing a cutting-edge drug development hub in Abu Dhabi. The initiative will merge M42’s capabilities in digital health, genomic…

Paris, May 22, 2025. Sanofi announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Vigil Neuroscience, Inc. (“Vigil”), a publicly traded clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. This acquisition in neurology, one of Sanofi’s four strategic disease areas, enhances Sanofi’s early-stage pipeline and includes VG-3927, which will be evaluated in a phase 2 clinical study in Alzheimer’s disease. VG-3927 is an oral small molecule TREM2 agonist. Activating TREM2 is expected to enhance the neuroprotective function of microglia in Alzheimer’s disease. Houman Ashrafian, MD, PhD Head of Research and Development, Sanofi “This acquisition is fully supporting Sanofi’s strategic focus on neurology and on advancing science and lever…

Researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, have taken a step towards more personalised and effective cancer treatments. A new study has identified the conditions under which the antibody drug bexmarilimab can activate the body's own defence system against cancer, and how to identify patients who will benefit from the drug. Bexmarilimab has the ability to “wake up” macrophages, a type of immune cell, to act against cancer. The study found that this activation occurs especially when the tumour microenvironment is immunologically silent. Moreover, in the healthy tissue adjacent to the tumour, bexmarilimab was shown to trigger B cell–mediated immune responses, regardless of how sensitive the neighbouring tumour was to the treatment. This suggests that the drug may have immunological effe…

Mulhouse, France, April 20, 2025 – CellProthera, a regenerative cell therapy developer specializing in ischemic diseases, has chosen CELLforCURE by SEQENS, as its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) partner for its planned Phase 3 trial for ProtheraCytes®, its autologous expanded CD34+ stem cell-based therapy aimed at improving heart failure event-free survival following a severe heart attack. CellProthera will tech transfer to CELLforCURE by SEQENS this year, with plans to produce clinical batches starting in 2026.  With promising results from a Phase 1/2b study of its lead ProtheraCytes®, CellProthera has begun preparations for its late stage of clinical development. Last year, the company presented its Phase 3 design to FDA and received favorable advice. Tech tran…

London, 15 May 2025 – Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (Hikma, Group), the multinational pharmaceutical group, is today hosting sell-side analysts and investors at its US manufacturing and R&D facility in Columbus, Ohio. The senior leadership teams from our Generics and Injectables segments will present on their respective businesses, strategies, and plans to deliver long-term, sustainable growth. Attendees will tour the Group's state-of-the-art, 1,000,000 sq. ft. facility in Columbus, which produces oral, respiratory and other generic and specialty products. It is one of Hikma's four US manufacturing facilities producing a broad range of medicines for patients across the US, where Hikma is one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines. Attendees will also tour the Company's newly acquire…

GSK to acquire efimosfermin, a phase III-ready potential best-in-class specialty medicine to treat and prevent progression of steatotic liver disease (SLD) GSK's acquisition of efimosfermin represents a significant strategic move for GSK in the hepatology space. The promising Phase II data and unique properties of efimosfermin, coupled with the substantial unmet medical need in SLD, position this asset as a potential new standard of care. The acquisition strengthens GSK's pipeline and offers opportunities for both monotherapy and combination approaches, with a potential launch in 2029. This investment underscores GSK's commitment to developing precision interventions for fibrotic liver diseases.