Today's Rundown That was fast: Ex-FDA commissioner goes back to biotech investing Affimed scraps T-cell engager program, parts company with CSO Tonix boosts pipeline with Columbia University-developed cocaine intoxication drug Locana bags $55M for RNA-targeting gene therapies Fountain Healthcare raises €118M for EU-focused fund Improving viral vectors for hemophilia gene therapies by tricking the immune system Featured Story | | | Thursday, May 23, 2019 Less than two months after stepping down as FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb has slipped right back into his old ways, becoming "special partner" at his former life science venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. |
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Top Stories Thursday, May 23, 2019 Affimed has terminated its phase 1 bispecific T-cell engager program seven months after the FDA hit it with a clinical hold. The action shifts Affimed’s focus to innate cell engagers that it plans to combine with other modalities to treat cancers. Thursday, May 23, 2019 Tonix Pharmaceuticals is getting into the addiction business, licensing a phase 2 treatment for cocaine intoxication from Columbia University. The company is planning to start a pivotal trial for the enzyme, which breaks down cocaine, in 2020. Thursday, May 23, 2019 Locana, a biotech working on gene therapies that target RNA rather than DNA, raised $55 million to expand its platform and pipeline as well as to build out its leadership team. The company is taking aim at diseases caused by problems in RNA that stop cells from producing essential proteins. Thursday, May 23, 2019 Fountain Healthcare Partners has raised €118 million for its third life sciences fund. The transatlantic VC shop, which backed Inflazome and Kandy Therapeutics with its second fund, will pump most of the money into European biopharma and medtech companies. Wednesday, May 22, 2019 Adeno-associated virus is frequently used as a vector to deliver gene therapy, but most people are immune to the virus, rendering the therapy ineffective. To bypass that mechanism, scientists in Italy have improved lentiviral vectors for hemophilia gene therapies and shown improved efficacy in monkeys. | This week's sponsor is ExL Events. | | | |
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