Manufacturing of medicines based on biology is complex. Viral vector manufacturing to produce gene therapy constructs, vaccines and oncolytic viruses is especially intricate. Most early stage companies use contract manufacturing organizations until real clinical proof of principle is achieved as a logical decision inflection point for investing in in-house manufacturing, versus continuing to use a CMO for pivotal studies and launch.
By Philip Astley-Sparke, CEO of Replimune, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC.
Read more.
Many autoimmune diseases are treated with immunosuppressive drugs to rein in an immune system that has turned on the body’s own tissues. Problem is, that approach doesn’t just tamp down the immune response in affected tissues—it affects immune cells throughout the body. Enter Q32 Bio, which is working on a new generation of treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Read more.
For some children with a certain type of brain tumor, treatment can mean surgery followed by multiple rounds of chemotherapy infusions to beat back the growth of their low-grade gliomas. A San Francisco startup hopes to change that trajectory with an oral therapy targeting specific proteins mutated in these cancers, part of a larger game plan to make precision treatments as available for kids with cancer as they are for adults.
Day One Biopharmaceuticals — named for the conversations clinicians have with parents when they first tell them their child has cancer and how they hope to treat it — announced on Thursday its first financing and its first drug candidate.
Read more.
In the decade since Nimbus Therapeutics built a company around computation and little-known phenomena allosteric regulation, the industry has brimmed with algorithm companies and even a few chasing those same targets. Still, a couple of the old leaders think they can keep an edge. “We’re very proud to have pioneered the field,” Gerry Harriman told Endpoints News. “And we’re also very proud to say our portfolio is full of targets that have allosteric inhibitors really for the first time that has ever been described.”
Read more.
Today marks an important milestone for HotSpot Therapeutics as we announce our Series B financing, but it also marks a milestone for me personally – 20 years in the business of biotech.
This blog was written by Jonathan Montagu, CEO and co-founder of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC.
Read more .