January/February 2024 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 9
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Synendos receives EMA nod for brain therapy
Synendos Therapeutics – a company focused on innovative endocannabinoid system (ECS) treatments – has announced that it has received approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to begin a phase 1 study of its SYT-510 asset.
The therapy is a first-in-class inhibitor that modulates a newly identified drug target in the endocannabinoid system to restore healthy brain physiology. The ECS is a key neuromodulator system, which plays a vital role in how the body responds to stress.
The double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial will investigate the tolerability, safety and pharmacokinetics of single-ascending doses of the treatment among healthy adult participants.
Meanwhile, the company is developing selective endocannabinoid reuptake inhibitors (SERIs) that influence the balance of the ECS.
By restoring endogenous cannabinoid levels that are dysregulated in certain pathological conditions, the mode of action can potentially rebalance brain function in a pro-homeostatic way that could treat neuropsychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr Andrea Chicca, Chief Executive Officer of Synendos, reflected: “The transition to a clinical stage company marks a significant milestone and step forward for Synendos and for SYT-510, the first candidate in our new class of SERI molecules."
She added: “More than a decade of research resulted in our identification of a completely new mechanism for treating complex neuropsychiatric conditions, and this has already demonstrated very promising preclinical results.”
Disco tunes into new cancer drug targets
Disco Pharmaceuticals – a company specialising in unlocking the surfaceome of cancer cells at scale – has raided EUR 20m to identify new targets and develop first-in-class drugs.
The funding round was backed by a formidable investor syndicate, including Sofinnova Partners, Panakes Partners, M Ventures and AbbVie Ventures.
The development of new treatment modalities in oncology is increasing, however, the lack of cell surface targets limits the application to some clinically effective targets.
Also, the development of new biologics, such as bi-specific antibodies and antibody drug conjugates, is increasing and there are currently less than 30 molecular targets, which form the basis of all antibody-based therapies. Consequently, there is a significant need to identify novel cancer-selective targets and target pairs.
Disco’s surfaceome mapping platform transforms the current approach of target discovery for large molecule R&D. This technology establishes proteins across the entire cancer cell surface in a scalable manner, thus addressing the need for target candidates for both mono- and bi-specific antibodies.
Meanwhile, the company has completed the first-ever map of the surfaceome of a cancer type – small cell lung cancer, which has been difficult to treat historically – and is developing proprietary antibody-based treatments.
Roman Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at Disco, elaborated: “We believe that our surfaceome discovery technology is truly disruptive and will transform oncology treatment options and ultimately improve outcomes for patients.”
HOT & NOT
A new study involving Boehringer Ingelheim, Newcastle University and the University of Edinburgh has been announced to advance the development of new treatments for liver cirrhosis.
The Accelerating Discovery – Actionable NASH Cirrhosis Endpoints (ADVANCE) study is the most extensive study into liver cirrhosis ever conducted worldwide.
Estimated to affect 444 million people globally, non-alcoholic or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (NASH/MASH) is an inflammatory liver disease caused by a build-up of fat in the liver.
Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed a diagnostic system to make lung cancer screening more accessible globally.
The new technology could replace or supplement low-dose computed tomography, the current gold standard for diagnosing lung cancer.
Based on nanosensors, sensors produce signals when detecting cancer-linked proteins in the lungs, which accumulate in the urine, where they can be detected with a simple paper test strip.
Poolbeg – a company focused on innovative medicines – has announced promising in vivo results for POLB 001 in treating cancer immunotherapy-induced cytokine release syndrome (CRS).
The drug showed efficacy in significantly reducing the condition in an animal model with CRS symptoms.
The data further supports Poolbeg’s strategic expansion of the phase 2-ready POLB 001 while the emerging results facilitate the expansion of patent applications for the therapy.
CellVoyant – an AI biotechnology spin-out from the University of Bristol – has announced a £7.6 million funding round.
Led by Octopus Ventures – with additional participation from Horizons Ventures, Air Street Capital and Verve Ventures – the funding represents the first stage in commercialising CellVoyant’s first of its kind AI and imaging platforms.
Meanwhile, the company now aims to enable the rapid development of novel cell therapies and unlock a wide range of treatment possibilities.
Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Oslo, the University of Cambridge and other collaborators have, have discovered that antibiotic use is not the only driver of superbugs.
In the UK and Norway, researchers compared the impact of antibiotic use on the treatment-resistant bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) over the last two decades.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when strains of bacteria evolve and develop resistance to many different types of antibiotics and can cause infections.
New data published by the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Outcomes Registry, based at the University of Warwick Clinical Trials Unit, has revealed that out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates remain low in England.
In England, the data revealed that around 8% of patients survived 30 days after a cardiac arrest in 2022, a decrease from the previous year.
Every year, more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the UK, with a survival rate of around one in 12.
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