Arcus kidney cancer data impresses analysts; TriGemX inks a SPAC deal

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Today, a brief rundown of news involving Arcus Biosciences and Eli Lilly, as well as updates from TriGemX Bio and AstraZeneca that you may have missed.

Shares of Arcus Biosciences climbed 8% Tuesday on updated results that bolstered investor and analyst confidence in the company's experimental kidney cancer drug. Arcus' experimental therapy casdatifan is currently in late-stage testing and works similarly to Merck & Co.'s marketed kidney cancer drug Welireg. At an R&D day, the company presented follow-up results from earlier-line tests in multiple settings that, combined, suggested casdatifan provides a “step-up in potency” compared to Welireg, wrote Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger. To Mizuho Securities' Salim Syed, the findings on tumor progression and survival indicated investors should ascribe potential value to casdatifan in the first-line setting. The drug has the chance to be an "all-line backbone therapy" in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, Syed claimed. 

Eli Lilly is teaming up with Hong Kong-based drugmaker METiS TechBio in a research deal centered around drug delivery tools known as lipid nanoparticles. Lipid nanoparticles — microscopic, fatty shells — are commonly used in RNA-based therapies and other forms of genetic medicine. Through the collaboration, METiS will use AI to help Lilly come up with new lipid nanoparticles capable of “tissue-specific delivery,” the companies said. Lilly could pay METiS up to $1.1 billion in the deal, though the companies didn’t say how much of that cash is guaranteed. 

TriGemX Bio will go public by merging with a blank-check company created by life sciences investment firm TCGX. The “SPAC” deal announced Monday will equip TriGemX with $246 million in cash, consisting of the $86 million in the acquisition vehicle’s reserves and a $160 million investment from a handful of prominent firms. TriGemX initially formed as Kallyope to target the “gut-brain axis,” a communication channel between cells in the central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract. It’s since rebranded, sold off obesity drug programs and now has a therapy called elismetrep in late-stage testing for acute migraines. 

AstraZeneca and Oracle Health and Life Sciences are working together in an AI-focused partnership aimed at optimizing clinical trials. Through the partnership, the two companies will test “practical ways” to connect drug research to health care, they said in a Tuesday announcement. Their first test will involve supporting research in Abu Dhabi, where the partners hope to help experts better identify patients with uncontrolled hypertension and improve recruitment in clinical trials. Neither company disclosed financial terms.