Today, a brief rundown of news involving Sanofi and Merck & Co., as well as updates from Definium Therapeutics, Eli Lilly and Nura Bio that you may have missed.
Sanofi has announced a new head of research and development. Houman Ashrafian, a former venture investor who’s led global R&D at the French pharmaceutical giant since 2023, is leaving to “pursue an opportunity outside the company,” Sanofi said Monday. Effective Sept. 1, he’ll be replaced by Paulo Fontoura, a longtime Roche executive and most recently the Chief Medical Officer of AI drug discovery startup Xaira Therapeutics. Fontoura will report directly to new CEO Belén Garijo and attempt to end an ongoing slide for Sanofi, which has recently reported several pipeline setbacks. — Ben Fidler
An experimental drug at the center of Merck & Co.’s 2023 buyout of Prometheus Biosciences has succeeded in a late stage trial. Merck didn’t provide specifics, but said Monday that the drug, tulisokibart, met its primary goal in a Phase 3 study in people with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. A second late-stage study is ongoing, but in the meantime Merck will share the results with regulatory authorities and present them at an upcoming scientific meeting. Tulisokibart is part of a new class of inflammatory disease medicines aimed at a protein called TL1A. It’s one of many drugs Merck is counting on to boost revenue when the cancer immunotherapy Keytruda loses patent protection. — Delilah Alvarado
Shares of Definium Therapeutics were up roughly 50% late Monday morning, after the psychedlics specialist reported positive results from a Phase 3 trial. The experiment pitted a single dose of Definium’s “DT120” — a formulation of LSD — against a placebo in adults with major depressive disorder, and found that, after six weeks, patients in the drug arm experienced significantly greater reductions on a widely used scale that measures depression symptoms. Definium said DT120 also worked quickly and was generally well-tolerated, with nearly all treatment-emergent adverse events being transient and mild to moderate in severity. Marc Goodman, an analyst at Leerink Partners, wrote in a note that the data were “about as good as we could have hoped for” and increased his peak sales for the drug in major depression to a range of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. — Jacob Bell
Eli Lilly will work with Sweden-based biotechnology company BioArctic to develop a new drug candidate for neurodegenerative diseases. Through a collaboration announced Monday, the companies will pair a proprietary Lilly molecule with a transporter technology BioArctic uses to get medicines into the brain. BioArctic will receive $30 million up front and could get up to $770 million in future milestone payments, as well as sales royalties, should the resulting drug reach market. Lilly will lead global development and commercialization. — Delilah Alvarado
Nura Bio, a small, San Francisco-area drugmaker, has completed a nearly $74 million Series B round led by The Column Group. Nura said Monday it plans to use the money to further develop its experimental medicines, which are designed to inhibit a protein, “SARM1,” that destroys the electrical signaling “axon” portion of nerve cells. The company’s most advanced medicine is in a Phase 1b/2a study focused on ALS. Euclidean Capital, Samsara BioCapital and Sanofi Ventures also particiated in the round. — Jacob Bell
