A New Haven biotech spun out of Yale said it has raised $21 million in hopes of bringing a new class of immunotherapy drugs to human trials by 2020.
Kleo Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced it closed last week on the Series B financing round, which was led by Japanese biopharma PeptiDream Inc., with participation by fellow Elm City biotech Biohaven Pharmaceuticals Holding Co.
Biohaven, which led Kleo’s Series A financing round two years ago, said it now owns roughly 42 percent of the company.
Based on the research of David Spiegel, a Yale professor of chemistry and pharmacology, Kleo is pioneering small-molecule compounds designed to emulate or enhance biologics to fight cancer.
The company’s lead candidates use Spiegel’s Antibody Recruiting Molecules technology, which are small molecules that can “recruit” antibodies to target cancer cells.
Similar to biologics, Kleo’s compounds harness the immune system to fight cancer but are non-immunogenic and are faster and less costly to produce, according to the company. Biologics are drugs derived from living organisms.
“Successful completion of this financing represents an important step in the translation of our groundbreaking approach into therapies that may improve patients’ lives,” said Kleo CEO Douglas Manion in a statement.
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If you’re taking acetaminophen to quickly knock out a headache, you might be better off with the old-fashioned tablets instead of the costlier gelcaps.
A study by New Haven analytical pharmacy startup Valisure found that, on average, the “fast-release” gelcaps actually took longer to dissolve than the typically cheaper standard tablets.
Findings were published Nov. 12 in the journal Advances in Investigational Pharmacology and Therapeutic Medicine.
“We believe that the results of this study warrant additional investigations into acetaminophen products and, more generally, into the marketing claims of over-the-counter drugs,” Valisure Chief Scientific Officer Kaury Kucera said in a statement.
The study compared 600 standard tablets and 600 rapid-release gelcaps across five top brands of the popular over-the-counter pain reliever. The products were analyzed every two minutes throughout 30-minute intervals.
The authors conducted further testing by removing the blue and red coatings on another 100 gelcaps, revealing a gray-colored tablet inside.
“The data strongly suggested that this coating is actually slowing down the dissolution of the drug, Kucera said.
Valisure bills itself as the first online pharmacy to verify the chemical properties of each batch of medicine it dispenses.
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New Haven drugmaker Biohaven Pharmaceuticals posted wider third-quarter losses compared to a year ago as it continued a push to bring new treatments for migraine and other neurological diseases to market.
For the period ended Sept. 30, Biohaven reported a net loss of $61.4 million, or $1.53 per share, compared to $42.9 million ($1.19 per share) during the third quarter of 2017.
Research and development costs reached $47.4 million for the quarter, up from $35 million in the year-ago period. General and administrative costs rose to $7.6 million, up from $4.6 million a year ago.
Biohaven attributed much of the R&D increase to payments associated with its previously announced licensing deal with AstraZeneca, as well as an increase in clinical trials for its cutting-edge migraine drug rimegepant.
The higher administrative costs were attributable in part to additional hires to prepare for commercialization activities, the company said.
The company said it had $168.2 million in cash at the end of the quarter, compared to $217.5 million at the end of quarter two.
In a separate announcement, Biohaven said last week it had enrolled the first patient in a Phase 3 study of rimegepant for migraine prevention.
Previous studies had examined the drug’s ability to stop a migraine already in progress.
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New Haven’s BioXcel Therapeutics Inc. reported promising results last week in an early study of the IV drug dexmedetomidine (Dex) for treating agitation in schizophrenia patients.
BioXcel said the drug, which is already FDA approved, was well tolerated and produced “mild arousable sedation” in nine of 10 schizophrenia patients, compared to no meaningful sedation in four patients who were administered a placebo.
The sedation lasted for 1.5 to 2 hours, a clinically relevant duration, the company said.
BioXcel said the results bolster its plan to develop a new, under-the-tongue formulation of Dex to treat agitation in schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s patients.
The company, which uses artificial intelligence to discover new drugs and repurpose older ones, expects to announce results of a parallel study in Alzheimer’s patients by the end of the year.
Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com
