Today, a brief rundown of news involving ARPA-H and Biohaven, as well as updates from Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Ipsen and Scipher Medicine that you may have missed.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, is awarding $160 million over a five-year period to a group of organizations and institutions working on personalized treatments for rare genetic conditions. The agency’s “THRIVE” program is meant to help accelerate these kinds of bespoke treatments by essentially pioneering clinical development blueprints for other research teams. By year three, for instance, award recipients will have started a first-in-human trial that might accommodate multiple different individualized products for a particular condition. They’ll also, through publications and demonstrations, “teach their rare disease colleagues” how to follow suit, ARPA-H said Thursday. Among the award winners are the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, UC Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute and the gene editing biotechnology company GemmaBio. — Ben Fidler
Biohaven has switched up its scientific leadership team in a bid to “accelerate drug innovation” as well as partnerships with other developers, the company said Thursday. Current top scientist, Bruce Car, is retiring from that post and moving over to a part-time role as Biohaven’s chief innovation officer, where he’ll focus on collaborations such as an ongoing pact with “techbio” company Bexorg. David Pirman, meanwhile, will now oversee Biohaven’s drug research as the company’s head of discovery. In a statement, CEO Vlad Coric said the two moves will help Biohaven “sustain our discovery momentum” and unearth new drugs for nervous system disorders. Company shares have nearly doubled in value since mid-May. — Ben Fidler
Eye drug developer Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is paying $75 million to acquire iRenix Medical, a privately held startup testing a new ocular antiseptic. Tarsus will pay $37.5 million in cash and $37.5 million in shares to iRenix investors, with another $490 million in future consideration coming should the company’s drug, IRX-101, achieve certain goals. iRenix has been testing IRX-101 against a standard pre-treatment antiseptic in people receiving intravitreal injections like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ Eylea. Investigators are measuring whether IRX-101 might reduce post-treatment pain. Tarsus currently markets a treatment for eyelid inflammation related to skin mites. — Jonathan Gardner
Ipsen said its Botox rival Dysport hit the main goal of two Phase 3 trials in people with either “chronic” or “episodic” migraines. Ipsen didn’t provide specifics, but said that, when compared to a placebo over the course of six months, Dysport was associated with a statistically significant reduction in the number of migraine days in both studies. The findings make Dysport the first treatment of its kind to help people with both kinds of migraines, including the episodic, or less frequent ones. AbbVie reported sales of $3.2 billion in 2025 for Botox as a migraine treatment. — Jonathan Gardner
Scipher Medicine will go public through a reverse merger with Chemomab Therapeutics, the companies said Wednesday. Following the merger, the combined entity will be 68% owned by Scipher investors, take on the Scipher name and advance an antibody drug, nebokitub, that is currently in mid-stage testing for rheumatoid arthritis. A group of Scipher investors, among them Northpond Ventures and Khosla Ventures, are pumping $30 million in cash into the company alongside the deal. That infusion will extend Scipher’s cash runway into the second half of 2028, after an expected readout from the Phase 2 study. — Delilah Alvarado
