Weekly Quick Hits (Philly) – Week of September 25, 2023

Temple researcher receives $2.5 million in funding for alcohol and e-cigarette research, The Innovation Space marks $1 billion raised by sponsor companies and more Philadelphia Region life science stories.

By Mark Terry | September 29, 2023

Funding, Awards and Collaborations?

Temple Researchers Receive NIH Grant to Study Alcohol and E-Cig Use on Blood Brain Barrier

Yuri Persidsky , MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University received more than $500,000 in annual funding for the next five years from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the NIH. The grant will fund research into the impact of combined alcohol and e-cigarette use on the blood brain barrier.

Grace Therapeutics, Inc. Announces $7.5 Million Private Placement Equity Financing

Acasti Pharma (Princeton, NJ) closed a private placement of its securities worth $7.5 million. The company is advancing GTX-104, a novel formulation of nimodipine for the rare disease aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH).

Janssen Launches National Campaign to Recognize People Who Care for Multiple Myeloma Patients

The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Horsham, Pa.) with the Advanced Practitioner Society for Hematology and Oncology (APSHO) launched the Make It HAPPen, a multi-year project to recognize and support Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) that provide care to people living with multiple myeloma. In a survey, 93% of multiple myeloma patients viewed APPs as essential to their care.

Avalo Eliminates $35 Million in Debt

Avalo Therapeutics (Wayne, Pa. and Rockville, Md.) paid off the remainder of its $35 million debt owed to Horizon Technology Finance Corporation. This frees up the company to advance its most promising drug candidates, including its anti-LIGHT mAb (quisovalimab or AVTX-002) and its BTLA agonist fusion protein, AVTX-008.

Geneos Secures $5 Million in Series A3 Financing

Geneos Therapeutics (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.) secured $5 million in a Series A3 round. The round added 3B Future Health Fund to its investor syndicate. Also, Dr. Roberto DePonti, managing director and general partner of 3B FHF, will join Geneos as a board observer. The company plans to use the funds to expand its Phase Ib/IIa GT-30 program in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Innovation Space Marks $1 Billion Milestone

The Innovation Space (Wilmington, Del.) reported that its portfolio companies have raised more than $1 billion in funding since its launch six years ago. The Innovation Space is a science-based entrepreneurial ecosystem and has worked with more than 100 startups across the country and internationally.

Madrigal Announces Pricing of $500 Million Public Offering

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (Conshohocken, Pa.) announced the pricing of its underwritten public offering of 1,248,098 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $151.69 per share. It also is offering to certain investors pre-funded warrants to purchase 2,048,098 shares at common stock less the $0.0001 per share exercise price for each such pre-funded warrant. The hope is to raise about $500 million. It plans to use the net proceeds for a potential launch of resmetirom for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in the U.S.

In the Clinic

Janssen Phase III MARIPOSA Trial Hits Primary Endpoint in Lung Cancer

The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Raritan, NJ) announced positive topline data from the Phase III MARIPOSA trial of Rybrevant (amivantamab) in combination with lazertinib compared to osimertinib as first-line treatment in patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Rybrevant is a bispecific antibody targeting EGFR and mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET). Lazertinib is an oral third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. The trial hit the primary endpoint with a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival (PFS).

Palatin Q4: Dry Eye Disease Enrollment Completed, UC Data Expected in Q1 2024

Palatin Technologies (Cranbury, NJ) reported its fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2023 financial results and corporate update. It reported that it had completed enrollment in its Phase III MELODY-1 trial in dry eye disease with topline data expected by the end of this year. In addition, it expects interim analysis for its Phase II trial of Oral PL8177 for ulcerative colitis in the first quarter of 2024 with topline data within the first half of the year. It reported that net product revenue for Vyleesi increased 47% over the previous quarter.?

New Products

Spherix Introduces Patient Chart Dynamix

Spherix Global Insights (Exton, Pa.) announced the launch of Patient Chart Dynamix, an advancement over its previous service, RealWorld Dynamix. Patient Chart Dynamix is an enhanced independent pharmaceutical market research chart audit.

Research Roundup

Soligenix, Inc. Reports 2-Year Stability with Bivalent and Trivalent Thermostabilized Filovirus Vaccines

Soligenix (Princeton, NJ) reported two-year stability of its thermostabilized bivalent and trivalent filovirus vaccine candidates at temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius when formulated in a single vial. The vaccine only needs reconstitution with sterile water immediately before use. The vaccine had previously shown 100% protection of non-human primates against the lethal Sudan ebolavirus and Marburg Marburgvirus challenge with the bivalent vaccine.

Penn Research: Imaging Technique to View Macrophages in Action

Researchers at Penn State developed a novel ultrasound imaging technique to view macrophages continuously in mammal tissue. This allows researchers to visualize the immune cells’ activity, with a potential for human application.

Penn Research: New Strategies Reduce Malaria Treatment Failure by Up to 81%

Researchers with 美国宾夕法尼亚州立大学 led an international team that evaluated artemisin-based combination therapies to treat malaria. Artemisinin resistance was first reported in 2020 in Rwanda. The team found that next-generation interventions such as triple ACTs, which combine an artemisinin derivative with two partner drugs or that use a sequential course of one ACT formulation followed by a different ACT formulation resulted in treatment failure counts that were at least 81% lower.

CHOP Research: Improved Fitness of Cells Used in Cell Transplants

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) published research showing that targeting extracellular vesicles (EVs) in cells relieves the stress on cells when they are outside of the body. This helps improve the cells’ fitness for use in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell transplants.

Drexel Research: Fitness and Maintaining Weight More Important than Weight Loss

Researchers with Drexel University’s College of Medicine and Dornsife School of Public Health published research suggesting that fitness and preventing weight gain likely play a more important role in reducing the risk of chronic kidney disease in obese people than weight loss does. The study tracked 1,208 overweight and obese adults from six cities nationwide who were participants in the NIH-sponsored Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and followed for a median of nine years.

Penn Research: Internet-Based Therapy May Help Depression in MS Patients

Researchers at Penn State published data from a Phase III trial of an internet-delivered cognitive behavioral program modified specifically for multiple sclerosis (MS). Major depressive disorder affects up to 50% of all MS patients at some point in their life. The study showed the therapy demonstrated a large decrease in depressive symptoms.

On the Hill – Regulatory and Advocacy?

Tris Pharma ’s Quillivant ER for ADHD Approved in Canada

Tris Pharma (Monmouth Junction, NJ) announced that Health Canada authorized the use of Quillivant ER for the treatment of ADHD in children ages 6 to 12, both as an oral suspension and chewable tablet. Quillivant ER is the first once-daily, long-acting, chewable and oral suspension formulations of methylphenidate to be approved for ADHD in Canada.

Baudax Bio ’s Hemophilia A Drug Receives Orphan Drug Designation from FDA

Malvern, Pa.-based Baudax Bio reported the FDA granted orphan drug designation to its TI-168 for the treatment of Hemophilia A with inhibitors. The drug is a next-generation, FVIII specific Treg therapy.

People on the Move

Avantor ’s Ger Brophy to Retire in 2024; Benoit Gourdier Appointed EVP, Biopharma Production

Avantor (Radnor, Pa.) announced that Benoit Gourdier will join the company as Executive Vice President, Biopharma Production on October 2, 2023. Gourdier will succeed Dr. Ger Brophy, who will retire on February 29, 2024. Brophy will continue to act as an advisor as well as Chair of the Avantor Scientific Advisory Board. Gourdier was most recently Senior Vice President and General Manager, BioReliance Contract Testing Services for Millipore Sigma.

Wistar President and CEO Dario Altieri, MD, Honored by the Justinian Society of Philadelphia

Dario C. Altieri M.D., President and CEO of The Wistar Institute is being honored by the Justinian Foundation and Society of Philadelphia for “exemplifying the finest qualities of scholarship, civic leadership and integrity.” The Justinian Society is an organization of attorneys, judges and law students of Italian-ancestry who promote continuing education in law and uphold a positive image of Italian-Americans.