Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:
Arvinas is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that says it is “dedicated to improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating and life-threatening diseases through the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapies that degrade disease-causing proteins.” In addition to its preclinical pipeline of PROTAC protein degraders against validated and “undruggable” targets, the company has four investigational clinical-stage programs: vepdegestrant for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic ER+/HER2- breast cancer; ARV-766 and bavdegalutamide for the treatment of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer; and ARV-102 for the treatment of patients with neurodegenerative disorders.
Janux is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing tumor-activated immunotherapies for cancer. Janux’s proprietary technology enabled the development of two distinct bispecific platforms: TRACTr and TRACIr. The goal of both platforms is to provide cancer patients with safe and effective therapeutics that direct and guide their immune system to eradicate tumors while minimizing safety concerns. Janux is currently developing a broad pipeline of TRACTr and TRACIr therapeutics directed at several targets to treat solid tumors. Janux has two TRACTr therapeutic candidates in clinical trials, the first targeting PSMA is in development for prostate cancer, and the second targeting EGFR is being developed for colorectal carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, small cell lung cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and triple-negative breast cancer.
Fortress Biotech is focused on acquiring, developing and commercializing high-potential marketed and development-stage drugs and drug candidates. The company has nine marketed prescription pharmaceutical products and over 30 programs in development at Fortress, at its majority-owned and majority-controlled partners and subsidiaries and at partners and subsidiaries it founded and in which it holds significant minority ownership positions. Such product candidates span six large-market areas, including oncology, rare diseases and gene therapy.
Dogwood Therapeutics is a development-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new medicines to treat pain and fatigue-related disorders. The Dogwood research pipeline includes two separate mechanistic platforms with a non-opioid analgesic program and an antiviral program. The proprietary non-opioid, Nav 1.7 analgesic program is centered on our lead development candidate, Halneuron which is a highly specific voltage-gated sodium channel modulator, a mechanism known to be effective for reducing pain transmission. The antiviral program includes IMC-1 and IMC-2, which are novel, proprietary, fixed dose combinations of anti-herpes antivirals and the anti-inflammatory agent, celecoxib. These combination antiviral approaches are being applied to the treatment of illnesses believed to be related to reactivation of previously dormant herpesviruses, including fibromyalgia and Long-COVID.
Hepion Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that has been developing a treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and other chronic liver diseases. Hepion’s lead drug candidate, rencofilstat, is a potent inhibitor of cyclophilins, which are involved in many disease processes. Rencofilstat has been shown to reduce liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma tumor burden in experimental disease models and is currently in Phase 2 clinical development for the treatment of NASH.
Tenaya Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company committed to a bold mission: to discover, develop and deliver potentially curative therapies that address the underlying drivers of heart disease. Tenaya employs a suite of integrated internal capabilities, including modality agnostic target validation, capsid engineering and manufacturing, to generate a portfolio of genetic medicines aimed at the treatment of both rare genetic disorders and more prevalent heart conditions. Tenaya’s pipeline includes TN-201, a gene therapy for MYBPC3-associated hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, TN-401, a gene therapy for PKP2-associated arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, TN-301, a small molecule HDAC6 inhibitor intended for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, and multiple early-stage programs in preclinical development.
Coherus is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of immunotherapies to treat cancer. Coherus’ immuno-oncology pipeline includes multiple antibody immunotherapy candidates focused on enhancing the innate and adaptive immune responses to enable a robust immunologic response and enhance outcomes for patients with cancer.
Aligos Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company founded with the mission to improve patient outcomes by developing best-in-class therapies for the treatment of liver and viral diseases. Aligos applies its science driven approach and deep R&D expertise to advance its purpose-built pipeline of therapeutics for high unmet medical needs such as chronic hepatitis B virus infection, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, and coronaviruses.
Beam Therapeutics is a biotechnology company committed to establishing the leading, fully integrated platform for precision genetic medicines. To achieve this vision, Beam has assembled a platform with integrated gene editing, delivery and internal manufacturing capabilities. Beam’s suite of gene editing technologies is anchored by base editing, a proprietary technology that is designed to enable precise, predictable and efficient single base changes, at targeted genomic sequences, without making double-stranded breaks in the DNA. This has the potential to enable a wide range of potential therapeutic editing strategies that Beam is using to advance a diversified portfolio of base editing programs.
NKGen is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative autologous and allogeneic NK cell therapeutics.
Recent news on these stocks:
March 12
Dogwood Therapeutics entered into a securities purchase agreement with certain institutional investors to purchase 578,950 shares of common stock at an offering price of $8.26 per share, in a registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules. The gross proceeds for the offering are expected to be approximately $4.8M before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses. This offering is expected to close on March 14, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. Dogwood intends to use the net proceeds of this offering to further advance the clinical development of its lead development candidate, Halneuron, and for working capital and general corporate purposes. Maxim Group is acting as sole placement agent in connection with the offering.
March 11
Arvinas and Pfizer (PFE) announced topline results from the Phase 3 VERITAC-2 clinical trial evaluating vepdegestrant monotherapy versus fulvestrant in adults with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative dvanced or metastatic breast cancer whose disease progressed following prior treatment with cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors and endocrine therapy. These are the first pivotal data for vepdegestrant, a potential first-in-class investigational oral PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera ER degrader. The trial met its primary endpoint in the estrogen receptor 1-mutant population, demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared to fulvestrant. The results exceeded the pre-specified target hazard ratio of 0.60 in the ESR1m population. The trial did not reach statistical significance in improvement in PFS in the intent-to-treat population. Overall survival was not mature at the time of the analysis, with less than a quarter of the required number of events having occurred. The trial will continue to assess overall survival as a key secondary endpoint. In the trial, vepdegestrant was generally well tolerated and its safety profile was consistent with what has been observed in previous studies.
March 10
Checkpoint Therapeutics and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced on March 9 that they have entered into an agreement by which Sun Pharma will acquire the immunotherapy and targeted oncology company. Upon completion of the transaction, Sun Pharma will acquire all outstanding shares of Checkpoint and Checkpoint stockholders will receive, for each share of common stock they hold, an upfront cash payment of $4.10, without interest, and a non-transferable contingent value right, or CVR, entitling the stockholder to receive up to an additional 70c in cash, without interest, if cosibelimab is approved prior to certain deadlines in the European Union pursuant to the centralized approval procedure or in Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom, subject to the terms and conditions in the contingent value rights agreement.
Tenaya reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings per share. “Throughout 2024, Tenaya made important advances across our cardiovascular gene therapy development pipeline that have positioned us for a data-rich 2025. We look forward to sharing data from both the TN-201 MyPEAK-1 clinical trial for MYBPC3-associated HCM and the RIDGE-1 clinical trial of TN-401 for PKP2-associated ARVC in the months ahead,” said Faraz Ali, Chief Executive Officer of Tenaya. “The recent financing with support from existing and new shareholders allows us to maintain our focus on driving our gene therapy programs for cardiomyopathies toward later-stage development. In the first half of next year, we expect to have greater than one-year of follow-up in the high-dose cohort of MyPEAK-1, as well as one-year follow-up for the first few patients enrolled in the RIDGE-1 clinical trial.”
Coherus Biosciences reportetd mixed Q4 results and announced it would reduce its headcount by 30%. The company said, “Coherus projects post-UDENYCA-close cash of approximately $250 million and cash runway projections exceeding two years, past key data readouts expected in 2026. Approximately 50 employees associated with UDENYCA are expected to transfer to Accord BioPharma, Inc. as part of the asset purchase agreement and Coherus’ headcount will be reduced by approximately 30% following the transaction to approximately 155.”
Aligos reported a year-over-year decline in Q4 earnings per share, thtough revenue was higher year-over-year. “2024 was a pivotal year for the company, paving the way for the future of Aligos,” stated Lawrence Blatt, Ph.D., MBA, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Aligos Therapeutics. “That future looks bright as we move ALG-000184 closer towards a Phase 2 clinical study, which is expected to begin in mid-2025. We continue to believe our CAM-E has the potential to be a first- and best-in-class candidate, by acting as a disease modifying agent for patients in need of better outcomes. Our recent fundraising is backed by investors supportive of our vision for ALG-000184, which has the potential to replace standard of care and become the backbone of treatment for next-generation therapies for chronic hepatitis B virus infection.”
Beam Therapeutics announced initial safety and efficacy data from its Phase 1/2 trial of BEAM-302, establishing clinical proof-of-concept as a potential treatment for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and for in vivo base editing. Preliminary results from the first three single-ascending dose cohorts demonstrated that BEAM-302 was well tolerated, with single doses of BEAM-302 leading to durable dose-dependent correction of the disease-causing mutation. Treatment with BEAM-302 was well tolerated with an acceptable safety profile at all dose levels explored to date. All adverse events were mild to moderate, with no serious AEs reported and no dose-limiting toxicities as of the data cutoff. Grade 1 asymptomatic alanine transaminase and aspartate aminotransferase elevations and transient Grade 1 infusion-related reactions were observed in some patients and did not require treatment. Following a single infusion of BEAM-302, rapid, durable, and dose-dependent increases in total AAT, new production of corrected M-AAT, and decreases in mutant Z-AAT were observed in circulation. Changes in total AAT were observed by turbidimetry assays as early as Day 7, plateaued around Day 21 and were maintained for the duration of follow-up. Increased total AAT was functional as determined by both neutrophil elastase inhibition and neutrophil elastase binding assays.
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About “Biotech Alert”
The Fly will report on a selection of biotech stocks seeing a surge in interest from retail and financial professional investors, based on data from InvestingChannel.
This Fly exclusive recap reveals the biotech stocks that are seeing a spike in searches among the 20-plus million retail and financial professional investors through InvestingChannel’s online financial news media ecosystem.
This increased attention from the investors may be in response to, or advance of, outsized moves for stocks in the biotech sector, which tend to be volatile and prone to sharp swings in share price around binary events such as clinical study results and FDA approvals.
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