Neumora shakes up its C-suite; Biogen cuts early-stage pipeline

Today, a brief rundown of news involving Neumora Therapeutics and Pliant Therapeutics, as well as updates from Biogen, AbbVie and SpringWorks Therapeutics that you might have missed.

Neumora Therapeutics CEO Henry Gosebruch is leaving the brain drug developer in a reshuffling of its executive ranks that will involve board chair and company co-founder Paul Berns becoming chief executive. In addition, Chief Financial Officer Joshua Pinto will become president; Chief Strategy Officer Bill Aurora will serve as chief operating and development officer; while Michael Milligan, currently a finance and accounting executive, will be promoted to CFO. Neumora expects readouts from three of its clinical programs this year. — Ned Pagliarulo

Pliant Therapeutics is assembling a new panel of experts to review data that led trial monitors last week to recommend the company stop dosing patients in a late-stage study of its idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis drug. Pliant still doesn’t know why its data monitoring board made its decision and intends to remain blinded to the findings so the study can remain intact. Rather than stepping in on its own, the company has asked the new panel to issue an “independent recommendation” and then join the existing trial monitoring committee with the goal of reaching a consensus. The process should take two to four weeks, Pliant said Thursday. — Ben Fidler

Biogen is discontinuing work on four experimental central nervous system drugs, the company disclosed alongside fourth quarter earnings. The pipeline cuts include two antisense oligonucleotides being tested in Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy, as well as early-stage drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain. One of those treatments, BIIB113, was promoted by Biogen’s team as a drug to watch when it gave up on Aduhelm in Jan. 2024. In a Wednesday call with investors, Biogen’s head of development Priya Singhal described the cuts as focusing “our development efforts on a smaller set of clinical stage programs that we believe are high conviction and well-positioned to deliver a regular cadence of pivotal readouts and potential launches.” — Gwendolyn Wu

AbbVie announced Wednesday a deal with Xilio Therapeutics to develop so-called T-cell engagers for treating solid tumors. Under the agreement, Xilio will receive $52 million upfront, and could secure further funds if it hits certain milestones or AbbVie exercises its options. Outside of the deal, Xilio is developing a number of cancer immunotherapies. The furthest along is vilastobart, which is being tested in combination with Roche’s Tecentriq for advanced solid tumors and a form of colorectal cancer. — Gwendolyn Wu

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a drug, Gomekli, from SpringWorks Therapeutics for a rare genetic disorder known as neurofibromatosis type 1. Gomekli is cleared for adults and children 2 years of age or older who have nerve tumors related to the condition. In addition to the approval, the FDA granted SpringWorks a priority review voucher, which can be used to speed drug applications. SpringWorks is currently in discussions about a possible acquisition with Merck KGaA, which, when confirming talks earlier this week, had said “critical conditions” for a deal weren’t yet met. — Ned Pagliarulo

Voyager Therapeutics no longer plans to seek regulatory permission to begin a human study of its gene therapy for ALS, after data from preclinical testing suggested the treatment’s main therapeutic component didn’t meet the company’s “high standards.” Specifically, there appeared to be an “off-target effect resulting in a narrowed therapeutic window,” Voyager CEO Al Sandrock said in a statement. The company hopes to find an alternative payload that it can advance for ALS. Plans to start clinical testing this year and next on several other programs remain unchanged. — Ned Pagliarulo

This post has been syndicated from a third-party source. View the original article here.