Good morning, and happy Thursday from STAT reporter Andrew Joseph, here filling in for Ed for the day. We’re up and at ‘em on this weirdly warm February day, thanks to today’s cup of stimulation, which promises notes of blueberry and toffee (we’re a light roast, whole milk kind of household). Subtle flavors aside, we’re more focused on the dangerously low levels of beans left in the grinder. Yet another thing to worry about, we fear. What you don’t need to worry about is your supply of pharma headlines. Here’s the latest, and do keep in touch …
A new medication appears to be helping stave off the development of type 1 diabetes, Nature writes. The treatment, teplizumab, is a type of antibody therapy that blocks T cells, the “attack dogs” of the immune system, from destroying insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. Approved last November in the United States, it’s also the first drug proven to delay the onset of an autoimmune disorder. And its development provides a roadmap for the discovery of pharmaceuticals to stall or prevent other conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang has helped found another company, STAT tells us. Aera Therapeutics launched Thursday with $193 million from ARCH Venture Partners, GV, and Lux Capital. With Akin Akinc as CEO, Aera will advance one of Zhang’s latest discoveries: a delivery technology called SEND, or Selective Endogenous eNcapsidation for cellular Delivery. SEND has the potential to address significant and longstanding limitations with not only gene-editing treatments, but also mRNA, gene-silencing siRNA, and other therapies that, as of right now, have a limited reach in the body.
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