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Good morning, everyone. Damian here with a look at a pioneering new gene therapy, the plight of WuXi AppTec, and a rough month for biotech’s neuroscience renaissance.
The need-to-know this morning
- AstraZeneca said it would acquire Fusion Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth more than $2 billion, picking up a company focused on the booming area of targeted radiation therapies for cancer.
- Crinetics Pharmaceuticals said its experimental drug called paltusotine achieved the goals of a Phase 3 study in patients with acromegaly, a rare endocrine disorder. Crinetics intends to submit a marketing application to the FDA in the second half of the year.
- PureTech Health proposed a return of $100 million to its shareholders by way of a tender offer of its shares. PureTech made nearly $300 million from its remaining stake in Karuna Therapeutics, which was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb.
- Madrigal Pharmaceuticals raised $600 million in a follow-on stock offering, following last week’s approval of its drug to treat the liver disease known as MASH.
FDA approves a pioneering gene therapy
Orchard Therapeutics yesterday won U.S. approval for a gene therapy that, when given early in patients’ lives, can nearly cure a devastating inherited disorder that eats away at children’s neurons.
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