Plus, news about Adaptimmune, Roche, LIfT BioSciences, VerImmune, and Revance Therapeutics:
Capricor Therapeutics to file Duchenne cardiomyopathy treatment with the FDA: The San Diego-based biotech in October plans to start work on a BLA filing for its allogeneic cell therapy, deramiocel, aiming for full approval. The submission will include cardiac data from the company’s Phase 2 HOPE-2 trial and open-label extension. Deramiocel is also under investigation in the Phase 3 HOPE-3 trial. The company’s shares $CAPR were up around 32% Tuesday morning. — Ayisha Sharma
Surrozen secures $10M milestone from Boehringer Ingelheim: The payout came after the German drugmaker said it would prepare a bispecific antibody drug, called SZN-413, for clinical studies in retinal vascular diseases. Surrozen and Boehringer first paired up to develop the asset in 2022 as part of a licensing deal that featured $12.5 million upfront and up to $586.5 million in milestones. — Ayisha Sharma
Adaptimmune gets $12.5M from Roche: The biotech received the money as part of an agreement to “resolve and release” both companies from disputes related to a research collaboration that ended in April, per an SEC filing. — Max Gelman
LIfT BioSciences raises £10M for neutrophil therapy: The funds will be used to advance the company’s immunomodulatory alpha neutrophils for cancer into an “investigator-initiated” Phase 1 test. The Series A round was supported by new investor Sijbrandij Foundation and existing investors like LifeSpan Vision Ventures and Starbloom Capital. — Ayisha Sharma
VerImmune raises $4.5M: The startup, based in Bethesda, MD and Singapore, described the raise as a “pre-Series A.” Beiley Biofund led the raise. The funds will be used to advance VERI-101, an immunotherapy designed to target cancer cells with an immune system’s memory of cytomegalovirus infection, into clinical trials. — Max Gelman
Revance Therapeutics, Crown extend merger timeline: The companies agreed to combine in August, but “alleged material breaches” were discovered days later, according to an SEC filing. The new deadline to complete the merger is Oct. 4. — Max Gelman