CTMC CEO Jason Bock talked to Scrip about the venture between MD Anderson and National Resilience, which provides manufacturing, process development and regulatory support for small cell therapy developers’ preclinical and clinical proof-of-concept studies. Meanwhile, Verge Genomics initiated a Phase Ib study of its AI-discovered drug for ALS; EyePoint and Aviceda dosed patients in their Phase II DME trials; Parexel teamed up with a non-profit cancer research group in Japan; and BARDA selected PPD to run its Phase II platform trial for ARDS.

The difficult investment environment has made it harder to build newcos, but panelists at the Galien Forum talked about how that might help limit some of the me-too companies that proliferate when financing is easier.

Safety signals were the most common cause of discontinued candidates in the breakthrough therapy designation program in 2023.

Private Company Edition: Quarter-over-quarter increases in venture capital have been bolstered by fewer but larger rounds, like the recent $245m series A for Aiolos. Also, OrbiMed raised $4.3bn across three new VC funds, Rampart completed an $85m series A and Atom Bioscience raised an $83m series D.