It has been said that late-stage clinical trials are where Alzheimer’s drugs go to die—there have been well over 130 failed clinical trials for Alzheimer’s in the last decade. Still, AB Science SA reported promising data from its Phase IIb/III trial of masitinib in patients with confirmed mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. And the approach is consistent with much of what is known about the disease’s pathology.

Autophagy is the process by which cellular debris is reused to make new components. This waste-disposal system is important for normal cell survival, but scientists at Regeneron have found a drawback: Autophagy can also protect tumor cells from being targeted by the immune system.

Servier is seeking a major R&D transformation and is tapping contract research organization IQVIA to help.

Amgen has maintained its lead in the race to bring a KRAS-targeting medicine to market after filing for approval of sotorasib in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the U.S.

For the first time, the FDA has cleared a unique type of implant to repair torn anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs), allowing patients to avoid reconstruction procedures that may require tendons to be taken from other joints in the body.

Google’s life science-focused sibling company Verily has raised a mammoth $700 million investment round to help rapidly expand the commercial reach of its health programs.

University of Florida (UF) spinout Atsena Therapeutics has closed a $55 million financing that will help take its gene therapy for a common cause of blindness in children into pivotal trials.

GlaxoSmithKline is stumping up $85 million upfront and up to an extra $730 million in biobucks for Surface Oncology’s early-stage antibody asset.

Three years after coming of out stealth, Vivace Therapeutics has raised another $30 million to pursue drugs targeting the Hippo-YAP pathway. The funding, drawn from Boxer Capital, RA Capital Management and Canaan Partners, will push its lead program into the clinic in the first half of 2021.

Human cells need structures called mitochondria to generate energy for their biochemical activities—and cancer cells are no exception. Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden figured that crippling these little power plants could be a strategy for treating cancer.