Former FDA commissioners Scott Gottlieb and Robert Califf tweeted their praise Tuesday of the appointment of two long-time FDA officials to head the agency’s communications.  Heidi Rebello will become FDA’s acting associate commissioner for external...

DISEASE CATEGORY: Infectious disease INDICATION: Escherichia A peptide that blocks the interaction between NCK1 and WIPF1 could treat or protect against enteropathogenic E. coli infection. A key step of infection involves binding of the SH3.2...

DISEASE CATEGORY: Cancer INDICATION: Pancreatic cancer Inhibiting the glycolysis enzyme PGAM1 could treat pancreatic cancer including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). In 50 PDAC patients, PGAM1 protein levels were higher in tumor tissue than in adjacent...

DISEASE CATEGORY: Endocrine/metabolic INDICATION: Diabetes Targeting USP14 could treat Type II diabetes by reducing the effects of endoplasmic reticulum stress, which has been implicated in the disease’s pathogenesis. In lean mice, the ER stress inducer...

Neoleukin thinks its merger with Aquinox announced Tuesday will enable the de novo protein design newco to submit an IND for its IL-2 mimetic and announce additional preclinical programs by the end of 2020. The...

DISEASE CATEGORY: Cancer INDICATION: Melanoma Inhibition of SH2B3 could help treat melanoma. Levels of SH2B3 were higher in tumor samples from 12 patients than in samples of normal skin. In a mouse melanoma cell line,...

Janpix is developing STAT3 and STAT5 inhibitors that could treat hematologic malignancies with greater durability and lower risk of side effects than other inhibitors of the JAK-STAT pathway. Janpix Inc. in-licensed its family of small...

INDICATION: Anemia Cell culture and mouse studies suggest inhibiting SH2B3 could help treat FANCD2-deficient Fanconi anemia, a disorder involving loss of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). In FANCD2-deficient mouse HSPCs, SH2B3 knockout increased growth...

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AQXP) said in an SEC filing it reduced headcount by 30 (53%) and halted all development of sole clinical asset rosiptor (AQX-1125) after the compound missed in a Phase III trial last...

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AQXP) said its sole clinical asset, rosiptor (AQX-1125), missed the primary endpoint in the double-blind, international Phase III LEADERSHIP 301 trial to treat interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). The company said it...