Business Matters: Is a Turnaround in Sight?

T-Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed $133 million Series B backed by Eli Lilly, JJDC, and others. The funding will take its first T-cell receptor bispecifics in cancer and autoimmune disease into clinical trials.

China’s NMPA grants priority review to Akeso’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific ivonescimab with chemotherapy for first-line biliary tract cancer, VeonGen Therapeutics aligns with FDA on a phase 3 design for its dual-AAV Stargardt gene therapy VG801, and Caldera Therapeutics’ IL-23p19×TL1A bispecific CLD-423 shows a half-life of more than 40 days in a phase 1a trial.

FDA’s draft framework would let sponsors add patient-specific genome editing variants to an approved BLA using in vitro data. Here is what the guidance proposes, what evidence it asks for, and what remains unresolved.

Healthy-volunteer data show sustained TL1A suppression and a profile supporting infrequent subcutaneous dosing. Caldera also licensed a second bispecific, targeting IL-17 and TL1A, from Qyuns Therapeutics.

Akeso won NMPA priority review for ivonescimab plus chemotherapy in first-line biliary tract cancer after a phase 3 win over durvalumab plus chemo.

VG801 gene therapy improved vision through 12 months in a Stargardt disease trial as VeonGen aligned with FDA on its pivotal phase 3 design.

UCB will use Cradle’s AI-driven protein design platform in selected discovery projects, from hit generation through preclinical readiness, expanding its digital antibody engineering program.

Boehringer Ingelheim licenses six preclinical ADC and T-cell engager programs from Sino Biopharmaceutical in a deal worth up to $7 billion, Spyre Therapeutics drops anti-TL1A antibody SPY072 in rheumatic diseases after phase 2 misses and turns to hidradenitis suppurativa, and Biora Therapeutics gets ethics approval for a first-in-human trial of its BioJet oral adalimumab capsule.