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DiCE Molecules is setting its sights on the clinic. With $80 million raised from a laundry list of investors led by RA Capital Management, the company will push its lead program, an interleukin-17 (IL-17) antagonist, into a clinical trial in psoriasis and build out its preclinical programs.“This financing will enable us to accelerate our lead IL-17 program through important milestones while advancing our other assets, including a pair of integrin inhibitors, and also to expand our pipeline using the same combination of technology and structural insights,” said DiCE CEO Kevin Judice, Ph.D., in a statement. “We believe the immunology space…

DBV Technologies’ goal of delivering an anti-allergy skin patch has proven to be a tough nut to crack. After the FDA turned the company away last year—saying its designs would need to be modified and retested—DBV now says it will lay off more than two-thirds of its staff by the end of the quarter. The French developer first announced plans to restructure its global workforce last June, a little more than a month before the FDA issued a complete response letter for its Viaskin peanut allergy patch. In refusing to approve the patch, the agency asked for a new human factor study,…

As universities nationwide begin a new semester under the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of California, San Diego is making diagnostic screening a more ubiquitous fixture of day-to-day life by offering tests in sidewalk vending machines. The self-administered kits are now available free to students and employees at 11 locations, with more planned in the near future. After swiping a UCSD ID card and swabbing their nose, samples can be sealed and returned to drop boxes around the campus to be analyzed by the university’s own EXCITE laboratory established last fall, according to the La Jolla Light. Each barcoded PCR test…

After cracking its wallet just one day earlier for a comparatively modest tuck-in deal, Hologic has opened it a little wider. Buoyed by revenue from COVID-19 testing over the past year, the company now plans to spend some of that new wealth—about $230 million—for the cancer diagnostic maker Biotheranostics, to help expand its lab capacity and develop new tests. The acquisition aims to jump-start the company’s entry into additional areas in oncology, alongside its previous efforts in cancer and women’s health, said Kevin Thornal, president of Hologic’s diagnostics division. Virtual Clinical Trials Summit Virtual Clinical Trials Summit: The Premier Educational Event Focused…

Canadian researchers have discovered that the healing process after a brain injury can give rise to the deadly brain tumor glioblastoma. By digging further to better understand that phenomenon, they’ve uncovered potential techniques for treating glioblastoma with precision medicine. Researchers from the University of Toronto, Hospital for Sick Children and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre analyzed samples from 26 glioblastoma patients and discovered that mutations in the brain can be modified by injury in ways that cause glioblastoma tumors to form. The data could be used to find better ways to target and kill glioblastoma cells, they argued in the…

During a public health emergency, repurposing existing medicines is considered to be a fast route to potential cures, so several companies and academic groups have spent much of the last year looking for COVID-19 remedies in already marketed drugs. Now, a research team from China has identified an approved chemotherapy drug as a potential coronavirus treatment.By using a combination of computational screening tools, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) showed that Acrotech Biopharma’s Folotyn (pralatrexate), a chemotherapy originally developed to treat lymphoma, could be a potent remedy against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus behind COVID-19.…

China-backed biotech Sinopharm has published a top-line view showing its COVID-19 vaccine is 79% effective, a fair chunk below the high efficacy seen from its rivals.The company previously said the vaccine was around 86% effective but gave no detailed evidence. Wednesday, in a press release, it said this number was in fact around 79%—still a high bar when flu vaccines are approved at just 50% efficacy, but falling well below the 95% seen from mRNA rivals Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, which both have FDA emergency clearance. The Beijing-based biotech’s vaccine has been granted authorization in several countries and has also been rolled…

Cancer cells often develop tactics to evade the immune system. A research team led by scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has identified one such mechanism, and it believes targeting it with drugs could potentially improve responses to immuno-oncology treatments.A protein called ENPP1 that coats cancer cells intercepts warning signals of tumor formation before they can reach immune cells, the researchers explained in a study published in the journal Cancer Discovery. In mouse models of breast and colorectal cancers, the team showed removing ENPP1 made the tumors more responsive to anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 immune checkpoint inhibitors. The over-expression of the protein rendered…

Senseonics’ plans to roll out its new, long-term diabetes sensor implant will be pushed to the middle of next year as FDA reviewers continue to be swamped by product submissions aimed at the COVID-19 pandemic.The upcoming version of the Senseonics Eversense continuous glucose monitoring system—a smartphone-connected device, first approved in June 2018, that’s inserted completely under the skin—aims to double its life span from 90 days to six months. But the company has received word from the FDA to expect delays of at least two months for its application while the agency tasks its staff with emergency reviews of coronavirus tests and other…

After suffering a complete response letter a little over a month ago, Alkermes quickly sorted out the manufacturing shortfalls that blighted its experimental med—and now, the FDA has set a potential approval date this summer.It’s been a roller coaster 18 months for Alkermes, which ended 2019 by axing staffers and cutting spending after its depression drug ALKS 5461 was rejected earlier in the year. It looked as if it were a case of history repeating itself in November when, despite a broadly positive advisory committee vote, the FDA rejected its schizophrenia and bipolar I hopeful because of manufacturing problems at…