Just in time for the holiday season, Arvinas’ lead protein degraders delivered promising early results in patients with hard-to-treat breast or prostate cancer. As the company continues those phase 1 trials, it’s gearing up for new trials in 2021, including dose-expansion and combination studies.

Elvire Gouze Ph.D., a serial entrepreneur and expert in skeletal disorders, has formed another company—InnoSkel—after agreeing to sell her first venture Therachon to Pfizer for $340 million upfront last year.

SHANGHAI — Gannex, a wholly owned company of Ascletis Pharma Inc. (HKEX:1672) and fully dedicated to the R&D and commercialization of new drugs in the field of NASH, announced today that it received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug candidate ASC42.

• Collaboration brings together clinical stage SHP2 and KRAS G12C inhibitors
• Relay Therapeutics will receive $75 million upfront and is eligible to receive an additional $25 million in near-term payments and $695 million in additional potential milestones, plus royalties on global net product sales

BEIJING & CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — EdiGene, Inc., which develops genome editing technologies to accelerate drug discovery and develop novel therapeutics for a broad range of diseases, today announced the appointment of Bo Zhang, Ph.D., as Head of the US Subsidiary, and Kehua Fan, M.D., as Head of Business Development. Both will report to Dr. Dong Wei, CEO of EdiGene.

Californian immuno-oncology biotech CG Oncology has reeled in a $47 million series D—and, surely, an IPO isn’t far behind—as it looks to phase 3 trials.

Rani Therapeutics has secured $69 million in new funding to move forward with the manufacturing and clinical testing of its “robotic pill”—a small, swallowable capsule that promises to shepherd more delicate drugs past the stomach before releasing them into the bloodstream.

Gilead Sciences is all about cancer these days, right? Well, no: The speedy authorization of remdesivir in COVID-19 saw its infectious disease credentials reinstated this year, and, now, it’s doubling down with a deal to buy out MYR Pharmaceuticals.

Boehringer Ingelheim has struck a deal to buy NBE-Therapeutics for €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) to add a ROR1-directed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to its pipeline. The deal comes one month after Merck agreed to pay $2.8 billion to acquire VelosBio for its anti-ROR1 ADC.

The condensates space is where it’s at: With an $81 million financing, Faze Medicines is the third company in as many months to score venture dollars in pursuit of these targets. The capital will bankroll preclinical work in a pair of neurodegenerative diseases as well as support research in other areas like cancer, virology and immunology.