Global Blood Therapeutics stops enrolment in sickle cell disease
Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) has stopped enrolment in trials for its sickle cell disease (SCD) therapy voxelotor due to initial, positive phase III results.
Based on its primary endpoint, voxelotor demonstrated a statistically significant haemolytic anaemia efficacy compared to placebo.
The company held a meeting with the FDA earlier this week to discuss its data, and the group is confident it is robust enough to gain accelerated regulatory approval.
President and chief executive of GBT, Ted Love, said: “Given the well-established association between chronic haemolytic anaemia and SCD-related morbidity and mortality, we believe the clinically meaningful increase in haemoglobin and improvement in haemolysis together with the safety profile demonstrated in Part A [of the trial] are highly encouraging.”
Love also said he believed that the treatment meets the standard for accelerated approval and confirmed that the company does not intend to enrol patients further until it completes discussion with the FDA.
NBE Therapeutics raises CHF 20m
Biopharma NBE Therapeutics has closed a CHF 20m series B financing round to further develop its lead programme NBE-002 for the treatment of solid tumours into clinical development and additional antibody drug conjugates pipeline programmes.
The Swiss company’s lead programme, NBE-002 targeting ROR-1, is being developed primarily for the treatment of solid tumours, and will now move into clinical development, with further ADC pipeline programmes also moving through early development.
Novo Holdings financed the company, and together with an earlier boost of CHF 20m, the group’s total has reached CHF 40m.
Owlstone wins award for Breath Biopsy
The team behind Owlstone Medical’s Breath Biopsy platform have received the prestigious MacRobert Award from The Royal Academy of Engineering.
Winning a gold medal along with £50,000 for the invention, the Breath Biopsy platform includes the ReCIVA breath sampler and is currently in clinical trials. The device opens up the potential for earlier diagnosis and precision medicine across cancer, inflammatory disease and infectious disease.