Moleculin | September 29, 2020
Moleculin Biotech, Inc., (Nasdaq: MBRX) (Moleculin or the Company), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company with a broad portfolio of drug candidates targeting significant unmet needs in the treatment of tumors and viruses, announced that its research team has discovered that a molecule within its portfolio of antimetabolites has displayed significant in vitro antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. Independent laboratory testing of the new drug candidate, called "WP1096," has now repeatedly demonstrated a therapeutic index of greater than 10, which is considered by our team to be an industry-standard commercialization threshold for in vitro performance of antiviral drugs. Walter Klemp, Chairman and CEO of Moleculin, stated, "While we continue to see encouraging progress with WP1122 in preparation for clinical trials for the potential treatment of COVID-19, we have also continued our antiviral drug discovery program to expand the range of potential therapies. Our efforts led to a new discovery that we believe can be a game-changer. WP1096 and its close analog, WP1097, are structurally slightly different agents within the WP1122 portfolio. However, small structural changes unexpectedly resulted in high levels of antiviral activity and potentially a unique mode of action.
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Yufan Biotechnologies | September 17, 2020
Exhaustion of T-cells is a key reason why CAR T-cell therapy may fail to control cancer. Recent work led by Xuebin Liao, PhD, Professor of Pharmaceutical Science at Tsinghua University (Si et al., Cancer Cell 2020) shows that HPK1 (hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1) promotes T cell exhaustion via NFkB-Blimp1 activation and that blocking HPK1, either by gene knockout or by small-molecule inhibitors, is an attractive strategy to improve CAR T-cell immunotherapy. These innovative approaches are being evaluated clinically by Yufan Biotechnologies, co-founded by Professor Liao and Yan Zhang, CEO. Yufan Biotechnologies has now partnered with Abound Bio, Inc, a life sciences company with world-renowned expertise in finding antibodies to direct CAR T-cells against cancer targets. Abound Bio was co-founded by Dimiter Dimitrov, PhD, and John Mellors, MD, CEO. The three-year partnership covers the incorporation of antibodies to novel cancer targets into the enhanced, HPK1-inhibited CAR T-cell platform.
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CELL AND GENE THERAPY
I-Mab | July 12, 2021
I-Mab, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical business dedicated to discovering, developing, and commercialization of novel biologics, announced today the signing of two new partnerships with Chinese emerging biotech firms to enhance its next-generation innovation pipeline.
Collaborations with Immorna, an mRNA biotech company, and neoX Biotech, an AI-enabled R&D biotech company, provide I-Mab access to revolutionary technologies to search for new cancer treatments. I-Mab will create new anti-cancer antibody therapies using Immorna's ground-breaking self-replicating mRNA technology. Furthermore, I-Mab will collaborate with neoX Biotech on up to ten new biologics programs that will use neoX's unique artificial intelligence algorithm under a strategic partnership agreement. Today's announcement adds to the Company's existing collaboration agreements with Complix for a cell-penetrating antibody platform and Affinity for a masking antibody platform in March 2021, allowing it to continue expanding its globally competitive pipeline of next-generation antibody assets enabled by transformative technologies.
The cooperation agreements specify that both partner firms will earn secret upfront and milestone payments.
About I-Mab
I-Mab is a global biotech business focused on discovering, developing and ultimate commercialization of new and highly distinct biologics in the immuno-oncology therapeutic space. Through drug discovery, the Company's goal is to deliver transformational medicines to patients all around the globe. I-internationally, Mab's competitive pipeline of more than 15 clinical and preclinical stage therapeutic candidates is driven by its internal R&D capabilities and global licensing agreements based on the Company's exclusive Fast-to-Proof-of-Concept and Fast-to-Market pipeline development methods. The Company is quickly transitioning from clinical-stage biotech to a fully integrated global biopharmaceutical company with cutting-edge global R&D capabilities, a world-class GMP manufacturing facility, and commercialization capacity. I-Mab has a global presence in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Hong Kong in China, and Maryland and San Diego in the United States.
About Immorna
Immorna, founded in 2019, is a rapidly expanding biotech company focused on creating self-replicating and traditional mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines. Immorna has developed a strong CMC platform for mRNA synthesis, purification, and analytical testing since its inception, and it is ideally suited for commercial development. In addition, Immorna has developed an arsenal of mRNA delivery vehicles using cutting-edge screening tools, including polymers and lipid nanoparticles containing multiple proprietary cationic lipids suited for intramuscular, intravenous, or tissue-targeting delivery. Immorna's pipeline is diverse, including cancer immunotherapy, infectious diseases, rare genetic disorders, and cosmetology. Immorna's oncology and infectious disease projects are nearing the clinical stage. Immorna's global presence includes Hangzhou, Shanghai in China, and Wilmington, DE in the United States.
About neoX Biotech
neoX Biotech is a next-generation biotech firm that focuses on computational design for novel drug research and development. neoX focuses on studying and developing macromolecular medicines and multi-specific drugs by combining artificial intelligence (AI), biophysics, and high-throughput experiments. neoX has created a highly transferable and sophisticated platform for early drug discovery via in-depth protein-protein interaction analysis (PPI). NeoX has shown preclinical success in a number of novel drug pipelines derived from this platform. Founded in 2018 by two physicians from MIT and Caltech, neoX has received over $100 million in funding from renowned venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital China, 5Y Capital, Vision Plus Capital, Vertex Ventures, LYFE Capital, ZhenFund, and others.
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