News round-up by DDW’s Megan Thomas for 17-21 January, 2022
When it comes to drug discovery and development, it’s all about the research, the breakthroughs and the next step. DDW’s Megan Thomas has rounded up five stories which highlight this theme of progress.
1. BenevolentAI announces collaboration with AstraZeneca
BenevolentAI, a clinical-stage AI drug discovery company, has expanded its AI-driven drug discovery collaboration with AstraZeneca, doubling the number of disease areas being explored through the partnership.
2. Success for AstraZeneca lung cancer therapy
AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso (osimertinib) has been accepted for use within NHS Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) as monotherapy for the first-line treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations.
3. AlzeCure gets late-breaking neuroscience abstract accepted
AlzeCure Pharma, a pharmaceutical company that develops small molecule candidate drugs for diseases affecting the central nervous system, has announced that an abstract on clinical data of its candidate drug ACD856 has been accepted for a poster presentation at AD/PD 2022, which this year will be held in Barcelona on March 15-20.
4. Avacta takes step to increase the tolerability of chemotherapies
Avacta has added the next pre|CISION drug candidate to its portfolio. AVA3996, has been selected for pre-clinical development with a view to a first-in-human Phase I clinical trial beginning in the second half of 2023.
5. Evotec and Lilly enter into drug discovery collaboration in metabolic diseases
Evotec has entered into a drug discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) in the field of metabolic diseases with a focus on kidney diseases and diabetes.