INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. | September 28, 2021
RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage drug development company focused on tissue protection, repair and regeneration), announced that GtreeBNT, the licensee for several RegeneRx products, is being acquired by HLB Group, a Korean company that includes six biopharmaceutical and financial subsidiaries in Korea and the U.S.
GtreeBNT announced that as part of its acquisition the company would issue approximately US$80 million of new stock and convertible bonds to HLB Group to fund ongoing programs. The new capital should speed up the clinical trials currently in progress and allow the company to focus on new drug approval. RGN-259 will remain a priority for the company.
HLB's recommended executives are expected to be appointed at the general meeting scheduled for October 29, 2021. Won Yang, the current CEO of GtreeBNT, is expected to remain as the chief research officer and continue to lead the development of new drugs after the acquisition.
RegeneRx has scheduled its 2021 Annual Stockholder Meeting for November 10, 2021 and hopes to have additional details on the acquisition and its effect on GtreeBNT's clinical development activities and timing related to RGN-259 and RGN-137, products developed for the treatment of dry eye syndrome, neurotrophic keratitis, and epidermolysis bullosa.
The fact that GtreeBNT will receive a significant capital infusion related to the transaction, we believe, should benefit the development of the products we licensed to the company. As soon as practicable after we receive any new information from the new management related to our products we will update our stockholders.
- J.J. Finkelstein, president and chief executive.
About RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
RegeneRx is focused on the development of novel therapeutic peptides, including Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) and its constituent fragments, for tissue and organ protection, repair, and regeneration. RegeneRx currently has three drug candidates in clinical development for ophthalmic, cardiac/neuro and dermal indications, four active strategic licensing agreements in the U.S., China, and Pan Asia (Korea, Japan, and Australia, among others), and the EU, and has patents and patent applications covering its products in many countries throughout the world.
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Xylyx Bio | September 30, 2020
Xylyx Bio, a leader in advanced disease models for drug discovery, today announced the launch of specialized contract R&D services that support improved assessment of antifibrotic drug candidate efficacy. Despite ongoing advances, the current drug discovery paradigm is highly inefficient. Approximately 40% of development costs are associated with preclinical studies, yet 80% of drug candidates fail before reaching Phase I trials, largely due to lack of translatability of efficacy data to humans. Commonly used assays have limited ability to predict how a drug candidate will act when introduced into patients, costing biopharma companies billions in the quest to determine which drugs will be most effective. To address this, Xylyx Bio now offers specialized contract R&D services based on its highly predictive IN MATRICO™ platform. Xylyx Bio's custom assays incorporate human disease-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) substrates combined with clinically relevant informatics to better represent human biology and reliably de-risk drug discovery through early efficacy signals that simultaneously reduce costs and development time.
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MEDICAL
Lilly | January 28, 2021
Eli Lilly and Company, Vir Biotechnology, Inc. also, GlaxoSmithKline plc declares a collaboration effort to assess a mix of two COVID-19 therapies in low-risk patients with mild to direct COVID-19. Lilly has extended its progressing BLAZE-4 trial to assess the organization of bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) 700mg with VIR-7831 (otherwise called GSK4182136) 500mg, two killing antibodies that quandary to various epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This unique collaboration effort denotes the first occasion when that monoclonal antibodies from discrete organizations will be united to explore expected results.
Bamlanivimab is a neutralizing antibody coordinated against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 designed to obstruct viral connection and entry into human cells, in this manner killing the infection. Bamlanivimab emerged out of the collaboration among Lilly and AbCellera to make antibody therapies for the avoidance and treatment of COVID-19. Bamlanivimab is approved for emergency use for the treatment of mild to direct COVID-19 in patients who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.
"Bamlanivimab is a potent antibody – with data from multiple Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials, which have demonstrated robust evidence for both treating and preventing COVID-19," said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., Lilly's chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories. "With a virus like SARS-CoV-2, it's expected that variants could emerge that require new therapeutic options, which is why Lilly is studying bamlanivimab together with other neutralizing antibodies, including etesevimab. Adding VIR-7831 to our study is an important part of our commitment to develop therapies to treat current and future strains of COVID-19 until vaccines are widely available and utilized."
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