Welcome to Biotech Readout!
Highlighting biotech innovation every week.
This is a newsletter designed for enthusiasts of science and medicine.
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Weekly Readout
A digest of new clinical data from the past week.
These include…
Landmark events in medine:
1st obesity medicine with weight loss similar to bariatric surgery (link)
1st FDA-approval of an aldosterone synthase inhibitor for hypertension (link)
1st FDA-approval of a PROTAC (link)
1st clinical trial of obesity drug semaglutide in alcohol use disorder (link)
1st FDA-approval for genetic hearing loss (link)
Potentially first-in-disease medicines, based on positive clinical data:
In alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) (link)
In non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (nHCM) (link)
In a rare but devastating liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) (link)
in vivo CRISPR gene-editing therapy (link)
Oral non-hormonal treatment for hair loss in nearly 30 year (link)
Potentially best-in-disease or best-in-class medicines, based on positive clinical data:
For difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis (link)
For second-line HR+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer regardless of PIK3CA mutation status (link)
For hidradenitis huppurativa (HS) (link)
For inactive thyroid eye disease (TED) (link)
For plaque psoriasis (link)
Frontiers in Medicine
Exploring the frontiers of our understanding and treatments for disease.
These include…
Obesity
Part 1 - Societal perception, recognition as a disease, and the discovery of its hormonal & genetic drivers
Part 2 - Evolution of treatments: from dark age to golden age
CAR-T
Part 1 - Immunology Civil War, the discovery of T-cells, and their rebirth as medicines
Part 2 - Beyond autologous CAR-T: allogeneic, in vivo, and T-cell engagers (TCE)
Part 3 - coming soon!
Acquisitions
Exploring the innovation behind acquired companies.
These include…
Science-driven companies, which start with a novel research finding or biological thesis:
Eli Lilly to Acquire Engage Bio, a founder-led startup aiming to solve gene therapy’s “last mile” problem (link)
Bayer to Acquire Perfuse, a long-acting diabetic eye disease play (link)
Chiesi to Acquire KalVista, an oral HAE play (link)
Eli Lilly to Acquire Ajax, a differentiated JAK play (link)
Eli Lilly to Acquire Kelonia, digging into the in vivo CAR-T gold rush (link)
Asset-driven companies, which are focused on building a pipeline of (usually in-licensed) drugs that are ‘potentially better versions’ of other drugs that have already achieved clinical/commercial success:
UCB to Acquire Candid, scooping a reverse merger for a TCE pipeline (link)