The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Phathom Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Voquezna Triple Pak (vonoprazan tablets, amoxicillin capsules, clarithromycin tablets) and Voquezna Dual Pak (vonoprazan tablets, amoxicillin capsules) for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection in adults.

Heat Biologics announced that a new development is underway in the company’s partnership with subsidiary Scorpion Biological Services.

Checkpoint inhibitor pioneer James P. Allison, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine, will helm a new research and innovation hub at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center that is focused on developing new immunotherapy breakthroughs in oncology.

Some of the best medicines happen by accident, according to BioSpace. The discovery of insulin began with two doctors removing the pancreas of a healthy dog in an attempt to understand its impact on digestion. Penicillin grew out of an unrelated scientific experiment involving Staphylococcus bacteria colonies. Will someone one day write the same of Novartis’ branaplam in correlation with Huntington’s disease?  

Early research suggesting that a popular non-psychoactive compound derived from marijuana might help prevent or treat COVID-19 warrants further investigation in rigorous clinical trials, researchers say.

AstraZeneca reported what the company called “unprecedented survival,” in the HIMALAYA Phase III trial using a single priming dose of tremelimumab added to the anti-PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor Imfinzi (durvalumab) compared to Bayer’s Nexavar (sorafenib) as a first-line treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who had not received previous systemic therapy and as a result, were not eligible for localized treatment.

French drugmaker Sanofi SA is partnering with British AI firm Exscientia Plc to develop up to 15 drug candidates across oncology and immunology, in a deal worth up to $5.2 billion in milestone payments, the two companies said on January 7.

Ovid Therapeutics has partnered with AstraZeneca for exclusive access to a library of early-stage small molecules that target the KCC2 transporter, including OV350 — the lead candidate. 

Angion Biomedica and Vifor Pharma announced that their Phase III trial on ANG-3777 for renal transplant patients did not meet the study’s primary and secondary endpoints.

AstraZeneca announced positive high-level data from the HIMALAYA Phase III trial of a single, high priming dose of tremelimumab plus Imfinzi (durvalumab) in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, who had not had previous systemic therapy and were not eligible for localized treatment.