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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