The hottest Drug Development Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Science Topics

Karuna Therapeutics, a drug repurposing effort, sold for about $14 billion. This is their story.

Trevor Klee’s Newsletter • 1119 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
🔬 Science Biotechnology Drug Development Pharmaceuticals Clinical Trials Innovation
  1. Karuna Therapeutics achieved a $14 billion sale through drug repurposing.
  2. Drug repurposing can be a highly lucrative business without requiring excessive brilliance or luck.
  3. VCs often prioritize hype and platform-based drug development over drug repurposing success stories.

Weekly Dose of Optimism #79

Not Boring by Packy McCormick • 94 implied HN points • 02 Feb 24
🔬 Science Nuclear Decarbonization Neuralink Drug Development Artificial Intelligence
  1. Biden administration to offer a $1.5 billion loan to restart a Michigan nuclear power plant, signaling support for the nuclear industry.
  2. Nat Bullard's Decarbonization presentation highlights climate change challenges, renewable energy growth, and investment opportunities in clean tech.
  3. Elon Musk's Neuralink achieves a milestone by implanting a brain interface, potentially advancing cognitive abilities and treating neurological disorders.

Roche's neurology strategy

Axial • 7 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Alzheimer's Drug Development Research Therapies
  1. Roche is focusing on developing therapies for neurological diseases like Alzheimer's, with a new drug called trontinemab showing potential for rapid clearance of amyloid plaques in the brain.
  2. Roche's neurology strategy includes a diverse pipeline of treatments for various conditions like multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular disorders, and gene therapies for muscle-related illnesses.
  3. The company's commitment to Alzheimer's research is driven by the amyloid hypothesis, societal impact, and economic burden, aiming to improve patient outcomes and address the growing need for effective treatments in the aging population.

Tune Therapeutics

Axial • 37 implied HN points • 22 Oct 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Drug Development
  1. Axial partners with inventors and invests in early-stage life sciences companies.
  2. Tune Therapeutics focuses on genetic tuning for controlling gene expression without DNA alteration.
  3. Genetic tuning by Tune Therapeutics may enable treating complex diseases more precisely.
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MoonLake Immunotherapeutics

Axial • 7 implied HN points • 17 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Biotechnology Clinical Trials Drug Development
  1. MoonLake Immunotherapeutics is developing a tri-specific nanobody therapy called Sonelokimab (SLK) that has shown significant efficacy in treating inflammatory diseases like HS, PsA, and PsO.
  2. SLK offers unique benefits like blocking all IL-17 pro-inflammatory dimers, enabling tissue penetration, and maintaining high response rates in patients with moderate-to-severe conditions.
  3. MoonLake's SLK has the potential to become a best-in-class IL-17 inhibitor in a multibillion-dollar market, with its innovative structure, clinical success, and competitive advantages over existing treatments.

Axial Discovery - Kidney disease

Axial • 29 implied HN points • 06 Mar 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Genomics Drug Development
  1. Over 30 million people in the US are affected by kidney disease, leading to high healthcare costs and lowered quality of life.
  2. New tools like genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are transforming drug development for kidney diseases.
  3. Companies like Goldfinch Bio and Chinook Therapeutics are developing medicines for rare kidney diseases with defined clinical milestones.

Axial Discovery - Phenotypic screening

Discovery by Axial • 3 implied HN points • 27 Mar 23
🔬 Science Drug Discovery Genomics Drug Development
  1. Phenotypic screening focuses on identifying specific physical or biochemical traits of interest for drug discovery.
  2. Key rules for effective phenotypic screens include selecting relevant cell models, designing disease-specific assays, and defining clinical-like endpoints.
  3. Advancing phenotypic screening requires improving throughput of complex models, developing translational disease models, enhancing proteomic tools, and integrating phenotypic and target-based screening.

Day One Biopharmaceuticals in the spotlight

Boutique Biotech • 0 implied HN points • 02 Mar 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Pharmaceuticals Drug Development Medical Research Patient Care
  1. Late-stage biotech companies have seen increasing value, while earlier stage companies have seen declines.
  2. Day One Pharma is developing a drug for pediatric low-grade gliomas, showing promising results.
  3. Important updates to look for include duration of response, safety profile, and NDA submission for Day One Pharma.