As Tocagen heads into a reverse merger with privately held Forte Biosciences, San Diego-based Denovo Biopharma swooped in to snap up that company’s retroviral replicating vector platform (RRV), including an asset that stumbled in a Phase III study that Denovo believes still has some life.
Dublin, Ireland-based Avadel Pharma announced positive topline data from the company’s pivotal Phase III REST-ON clinical trial of FT218 for excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy.
Axsome Therapeutics announced that the company’s AXS-05 met the primary endpoint in the ADVANCE-1 Phase II/III clinical trial for agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Bristol-Myers Squibb and Exelixis are eying potential approval of a combination therapy for renal cell carcinoma following results from a late-stage study that showed a combination of Opdivo and Cabometyx met the primary endpoint of progression-free survival.
A recent study published in JAMA Oncology found that although about a third of cancer clinical trials failed to meet their primary endpoints, at oncology meetings they tend to be spun in a positive light.
Merck’s checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) hit one of the coprimary endpoints early in the Phase III KEYNOTE-177 clinical trial for a highly mutating form of colorectal cancer.
Treatment with Stelara is resulting in positive outcomes for patients with Crohn’s disease, as Janssen Pharmaceutical said 79% of patients in a late-stage trial showed a clinical response to the medication and 67% were in clinical remission.
