Plus, news about Tenax Therapeutics:
BioCryst discontinues Factor D inhibitor: This is after finding that “clinical activity observed was less than other therapies on the market.” The company tried to shop it to other partners but they “declined to make the additional investment required to evaluate higher doses,” the company said Monday.
Elevation Oncology’s small Phase 1 data: The company reported Tuesday that among seven evaluable patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer who had higher levels of Claudin 18.2, three notched a partial response when given EO-3021. The company’s lead antibody drug conjugate had a 0% objective response rate in the eight evaluable patients with lower Claudin 18.2 expression. Elevation’s stock $ELEV dropped almost 60% Tuesday morning.
Tenax tacks on $100M private placement: Biotech hedge fund BVF Partners has led a $100 million private placement for Tenax with contribution from other industry mainstays Venrock and Vivo Capital, among others. The money should help bankroll a Phase 3 study testing an oral version of levosimendan in patients with pulmonary hypertension with left heart disease. The company says it “may resume developing its unique oral formulation of imatinib,” which was being developed to treat patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Rival biotech Aerovate recently shut down after an inhaled version of the same drug for the same indication flunked a Phase 2 study.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify Tenax’s clinical development priorities.