This week's Lab Notes has items on a new approval for a Chester County company's pain medicine, $7.2 million in debt financing raised by a medical device firm, the start of a cell therapy clinical trial and more.
Here's the roundup:
Trevena
The Chesterbrook biopharmaceutical company's partner, Jiangsu Nhwa, received approval from the Chinese National Medical Product Administration for the injectable pain medicine Olinvyk.
The approval triggered a $3 million milestone payment to Trevena (NASDAQ: TRVN) from Jiangsu Nhwa.
Trevana CEO Carrie Bourdow said the company will continue to collaborate with Jiangsu Nhwaas as they move forward with launch and full commercialization of Olinvyk in China.
Olinvyk in 2020 received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the management of acute pain severe enough to require an intravenous opioid analgesic and for whom alternative treatments are inadequate.
Trevena said it is also eligible to receive an additional $15 million payment upon the first commercial sale in China in connection with its non-dilutive royalty-based financing with an affiliate of R-Bridge Healthcare Fund, which is part of CBC Group.
The 35-employee Trevena reduced its workforce last summer by about 25% as part of a "resource realignment" to extend its cash runway and preserve funds for two key strategic priorities: driving commercial adoption of Olinvyk and advancing the development of TRV045, its experimental drug in early-stage clinical testing as a potential treatment for diabetic neuropathic pain.
Cagent Vascular
The Wayne-based medical device company raised $7.2 million in debt financing.
The debt sale was disclosed in documents the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Founded in 2014, Cagent specializes in developing next generation angioplasty balloons using its proprietary serration technology. The company is led by CEO Carol Burns.
Burns co-founded Cagent with Dr. Peter Schneider, a vascular surgeon and the company's chief medical officer, and Robert Giasolli, the company's chief technology officer. The team previously co-founded another local medical device company, Wayne-based Intact Vascular, which was acquired three years ago by Royal Philips in a deal valued at $360 million.
In April 2020, the FDA granted marketing clearance to Cagent's Serranator PTA serration balloon catheter — an angioplasty device with serrated metal strips to aid in arterial expansion — for treating below-the-knee lesions.
Cagent raised $9 million in a private stock sale to Canadian investment firm Sectoral Asset Management in 2021. The company's early backers include Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Company officials were not available to comment on how the funds from the debt financing will be used.
Verismo Therapeutics
The Penn spinout focused on developing a next generation CAR T-cell therapy, said it has activated a phase 1 clinical trial of its lead new drug candidate SynKIR-110.
SynKIR-110 is being studied as a potential the treatment of "mesothelin-overexpressing' malignant pleural mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer; cholangiocarcinoma, a type of bile duct cancer; and ovarian cancer.
"This trial marks a pivotal moment for our company," said Dr. Bryan Kim, co-founder and CEO of Verismo.
Kim said for the clinical trial the company is partnering with Penn researchers Dr. Janos Tanyi, Dr. Andrew Haas, and Dr. Mark O'Hara "to bring this innovative therapy to those who require it the most."
Quick Hits
Labcorp (NYSE: LH) and Jefferson Health have reached an agreement under which Labcorp will acquire select assets of Jefferson's outreach laboratory services. Financial terms of the deal are being kept confidential. The transaction is expected to close by mid-year, subject to customary closing conditions and applicable regulatory approvals. Jefferson will continue to own and operate their existing hospital labs for outpatient and inpatient services.… Interius BioTherapeutics, a Philadelphia gene therapy company developing novel methods for in vivo cell-specific gene delivery, has formed a manufacturing partnership with WuXi Advanced Therapies, a global contract testing, development and manufacturing organization. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.… Philadelphia-based Wistar Institute has entered into a collaboration with GeneOne Life Science Inc., a South Korean biopharmaceutical company, to identify novel small molecules capable of inhibiting Nipah virus entry into cells — and to develop the molecules into preclinical leads for potentially treating Nipah virus infections. The partnership is being led by Dr. Luis J. Montaner, who leads Wistar's HIV Research Program, Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center. Nipah virus is an RNA virus that first appeared on farms in Malaysia and Singapore in humans and pigs. Since 1999, Nipah outbreaks have occurred in other countries of Southeast Asia, most frequently in Bangladesh.
