This week in drug discovery (6-10 January)
News round-up for 6-10 January by DDW Senior Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer.
Our news round-up at the end of last year focused on drug discovery investment, so it is positive to see that this has also started strong in 2025, with a number of new acquisitions, research partnership agreements and financings to kick off the new year.
The top stories:
Narcolepsy acquisitions to boost Neuraxpharm’s CNS reach
Pharmaceutical company Neuraxpharm has acquired Provigil (modafinil) and Nuvigil (armodafinil), both of which are indicated for the treatment of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS) in adults with narcolepsy.
Vertex signs multimillion dollar deal with Orna Therapeutics
Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Orna Therapeutics have announced plans to partner on gene therapies for sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT).
$115 million supports development of bioprinted cell therapies
Bioprinted tissue therapeutics company Aspect Biosystems has closed a $115 million Series B financing round.
Lilly and Alchemab collaborate on novel therapies for ALS
Eli Lilly and Alchemab Therapeutics hope to discover novel therapeutic candidates to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) as part of a new research collaboration.
XyloCor financing advances one-time cardiovascular gene therapy
XyloCor Therapeutics has completed a $67.5 million Series B financing to support a Phase IIb clinical trial (EXACT‑2) of XC001 (encoberminogene rezmadenovec) in refractory angina.