Tag: United Kingdom

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Drug Candidate Shows Early Promise for Treating Alzheimer’s Damage

A drug candidate developed at King’s College London boosts DNA repair and reduces neuronal damage, as well as lowering neuroinflammation and could become a new treatment option for people with early stage Alzheimer’s disease in the future.

Writing in the journal FEBS Open Bio, lead author Jonathan Corcoran, PhD, a professor at King’s College London, and colleagues report results of a study carried out in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease that tested KCL-286, a retinoic acid receptor-beta agonist, and showed it had beneficial effects in the animals.

As Alzheimer’s disease develops, amyloid-beta accumulates and suppresses the brain’s natural retinoic acid signaling. This, as well as other factors, leaves neurons increasingly unable to repair DNA damage. The unrepaired damage then triggers microglial and astrocyte overactivation, which contributes to further neuronal injury in a self-reinforcing loop.

Mice treated with KCL-286 had significantly fewer DNA double-strand breaks in neurons than untreated mice, something seen in Alzheimer’s patients. They also had increased neuronal expression of BRCA1 protein, a DNA repair and tumor suppressor protein, suggesting KCL-286 partly works by ramping up the brain’s own repair machinery. In certain cancers, a BRCA1 mutation results in reduced or absent functional protein, which increases cancer risk over time.

KCL-286 also seemed to reduce inflammation in the brain of treated mice. Microglia and astrocytes were both abnormally enlarged and activated in the animals before treatment. However, after treatment the size and shape of these cells went back towards normal, in other words, calming dangerous inflammation without getting rid of the cells.

“We think of the drug as repairing potholes in a road—once the damage is fixed, normal traffic can flow again and the system settles down. By repairing the underlying damage, we can allow the system to reset,” said Corcoran in a press statement.

This is an early stage study and still needs to be tested in humans, but KCL-286 has already completed a Phase I trial in healthy human volunteers with no drug-related adverse events and is known to cross the blood-brain barrier efficiently. This is because the drug candidate is also being tested for treatment of spinal cord injury, hence the earlier Phase I study.

Both acute spinal cord injury and chronic neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s involve accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks in neurons. In the former this is caused by the mechanical trauma and subsequent inflammation, whereas in the latter it builds up gradually over years.

The lack of side effects seen in the Phase I study is also important for KCL-286’s development as a possible Alzheimer’s treatment, as two earlier, non-selective retinoid drugs tested for treatment of Alzheimer’s caused side effects because they hit multiple off target receptor subtypes. KCL-286’s selectivity for the retinoic acid receptor-beta is designed to avoid this.

“Together with its favorable human safety profile, the data support further investigation of selective retinoic acid receptor-beta agonism as a therapeutic strategy for modifying pathogenic processes associated with Alzheimer’s disease,” conclude the authors.

The researchers think that if KCL-286 reaches the clinic early treatment is likely to be key to success. They also note there is potential for this type of therapy to be used in combination with approved Alzheimer’s treatments like lecanemab, which act to reduce harmful amyloid beta in the brain.

The post Drug Candidate Shows Early Promise for Treating Alzheimer’s Damage appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.

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Novartis to Acquire Myricx Bio for Up to $1.5B, Adding Cancer-Fighting ADC Payload Platform

Novartis has agreed to acquire Myricx Bio, a London-based developer of next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), for up to $1.5 billion in a deal designed to bolster the buyer’s oncology pipeline with a next-generation ADC payload platform designed to fight cancer.

Privately-held Myricx specializes in developing ADCs that use N-myristoyltransferase inhibitor (NMTi) payloads, an approach designed to deliver a differentiated cancer-killing payload directly to tumor cells. Myricx says its ADC approach holds the potential to address limitations of TOPO-1 inhibitors, tubulin inhibitors, and other commonly used ADC payload classes—ranging from toxicity to healthy cells, to tumor resistance, to dose-limiting adverse events.

The acquisition deal is designed to combine Myricx’s two lead ADC assets and next-generation first-in-class NMTi payload platform with Novartis’ expertise in developing cancer therapies.

According to Myricx Bio, preclinical data suggests that its NMTi payload may have broad activity across multiple solid tumors, including TOPO-1-resistant models, and may enable more effective use of ADCs in settings where existing payload classes have limitations. NMT is an enzyme responsible for the addition of myristic acid, a 14-carbon fatty acid, to the N-terminus of multiple proteins that are crucial for cancer cell survival.

“ADCs have become an important part of cancer treatment, but there remains a clear need for new payload mechanisms to overcome resistance and expand their impact for patients,” Fiona Marshall, PhD, Novartis’ president of biomedical research, said in a statement. “Myricx Bio has developed a promising NMTi payload platform with a differentiated mechanism that could broaden the use of ADCs across multiple tumor settings.”

Marshall added that the Myricx Bio acquisition “reflects our strategy to scale innovative platforms, as we have with radioligand therapies, to deliver more durable, transformative treatments for patients.” In February, Novartis announced plans to build a 46,000-square-foot radioligand therapy (RLT) manufacturing site in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Denton, TX.

Novartis investors reacted by sending its shares traded on the SIX Swiss exchange down 2% Monday, from CHF 127.92 ($157.69) to CHF 125.10 ($154.22). Novartis’ American Depositary Shares (ADSs) traded on the New York Stock Exchange dipped 3%, from $159.90 to $155.08 as of 10:13 a.m. ET

Mohit Rawat, Myricx Bio’s CEO

Until now, Myricx has said little about its two lead NMTi-ADC candidates, except to disclose on its website that it is prioritizing one that targets B7-H3 and the other, HER2, “based on compelling preclinical efficacy and safety data across multiple solid tumor-associated antigens and cancer cell types.”

Novartis agreed to shell out $1.1 billion cash upfront plus up to $400 million tied to achieving milestones. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year, subject to satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

“Transformative promise”

“We are delighted that Novartis recognizes the transformative promise of our NMTi-ADC platform to deliver this next-generation of potential first-in-class, highly differentiated ADC therapeutics,” stated Mohit Rawat, Myricx Bio’s CEO. “Together with Novartis, we look forward to building upon our work to transform the landscape of cancer treatment.”

Rawat joined Myricx last year with the goal of steering the company through preclinical development and its next stage of growth.

Founded in 2019, Myricx Bio was spun out from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute by Ed Tate, PhD; Roberto Solari, PhD; and Andrew Bell, PhD, with support from Cancer Research UK, as well as seed investment from Brandon Capital and Sofinnova Partners.

Myricx’s co-founders and their collaborative teams discovered that NMT played a vital role in maintaining multiple critical, diverse cellular processes in cancer cells, including vesicle trafficking, growth factor signaling, cancer cell survival, mitochondrial biogenesis, and cancer cell metabolism.

Under CTO Robin Carr, PhD, Myricx Bio raised £90 million ($114 million) in a Series A financing in mid-2024 led by Novo Holdings and Abingworth, joined by British Business Bank, Cancer Research Horizons, Eli Lilly, and existing investors. This enabled the company to scale its operations and expand the team to rapidly advance its pipeline.

The planned acquisition of Myrocx Bio is Novartis’ third major deal this year focused on boosting its cancer pipeline.

On June 24, Antares Therapeutics announced it would receive $105 million upfront from Novartis through a strategic collaboration to discover, develop, and commercialize small molecule therapies against promising but historically undruggable oncology targets. Novartis also committed to paying Antares up to $1.8 billion tied to achieving additional option exercise, development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties on global net sales.

And in March, Novartis committed up to $2 billion upfront toward acquiring Pikavation Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Synnovation Therapeutics that specializes in developing PI3Kα inhibitor programs designed to treat forms of cancer. Novartis also agreed to pay up to $1 billion in payments tied to achieving development, regulatory, and commercial milestones.

The post Novartis to Acquire Myricx Bio for Up to $1.5B, Adding Cancer-Fighting ADC Payload Platform appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Loneliness From the Digital Mental Health Practitioners’ Perspective: Thematic Analysis of Semistructured Interviews

Background: Loneliness is a prevalent concern across the United Kingdom. While validated scales exist to quantify the severity of loneliness across populations, there remains a gap in understanding how loneliness manifests and is addressed within therapeutic practice. Given the associated stigma surrounding loneliness, practitioner perspectives offer crucial insights into how clients express loneliness within digital therapeutic environments. These insights can inform more nuanced conceptualizations of loneliness. Objective: This study aimed to gather the practitioners’ perspectives on loneliness within a digital therapeutic context and were defined as follows: (1) understand how practitioners identify loneliness concerns, (2) identify how loneliness is elicited in digital mental health interventions, and (3) identify co-occurring themes (such as grief, shame, and social disconnection) that signal loneliness concerns in client communications within digital therapeutic environments. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 9 practitioners. Participants included specialists in grief counseling, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning plus support; and digital mental health therapists. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis, using an inductive, data-driven approach to allow themes to emerge from participant accounts rather than fitting data to preexisting theoretical frameworks. Results: The following four themes were identified: (1) Conceptualizing Loneliness: practitioners distinguished between social contact and meaningful connection; (2) Contextual Causes: loneliness emerged from life transitions, stigmatized identities, and resource reduction (eg, youth services closures and social support); (3) Expressions and Language: clients rarely expressed loneliness directly, instead using proxy terms, with disclosure patterns varying by age; and (4) Mental Health Co-occurrence: severe mental health conditions created bidirectional cycles of loneliness, exacerbated by symptoms of mental health difficulties. Practitioners reported that many clients experienced loneliness concerns, yet direct disclosure was absent across all participants’ experiences. Conclusions: Practitioners identified multiple stigmatizing experiences as contextual drivers of loneliness, particularly demonstrating how loneliness emerges not only from individual experiences but from broader patterns of social exclusion and marginalization. For therapeutic practice, these insights suggest that practitioners can use awareness of stigmatizing experiences as potential indicators when assessing loneliness risk. The presence of contextual patterns was consistent across practitioners’ experiences, providing a foundation for developing more targeted interventions to address both the emotional experience of loneliness and the underlying social drivers.
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Exploring the Experiences of Moderators From an Asynchronous Online Dementia Support Forum: Qualitative Interview Study

Background: Asynchronous online forums provide flexible, accessible peer support for many people living with dementia and carers. Moderators are central to the functioning of these communities, yet little is known about their experiences. Objective: This study explored the experiences of individuals moderating an online dementia forum, including their motivations, perceived benefits, challenges, and suggestions for improvements. Methods: Moderators from a UK-based online dementia support forum were recruited using purposive sampling via forum administrators. Between January and March 2025, 5 moderators, all with dementia care experience, participated in remote semistructured interviews. Interview topics included pathways into moderation, perceptions of the moderator role, experiences of supporting forum members, challenges encountered, perceived personal benefits, and views on the future development of online support communities. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four themes were produced: (1) “from support seeker to support provider”: moderators primarily identified as community members rather than authority figures, following a trajectory from receiving support as a carer to actively facilitating community support; (2) “understanding through shared experience”: lived experience of dementia was seen as essential for empathy, credibility, and sensitive responses, though sometimes prompted strong emotional reactions; (3) “giving back and gaining in return”: moderation offered purpose, structure, and social connection, particularly postretirement and following transition out of caring; (4) “balancing growth with community preservation”: forum expansion increased workload, spam management demands, and safeguarding responsibilities, and moderators were cautious about social media–style features and artificial intelligence–generated content undermining the effectiveness of support exchanges. Conclusions: Moderators play a crucial, value-driven role in sustaining dementia support forums, extending beyond administrative duties. The findings suggest that moderators occupy a distinctive position as both recipients and providers of peer support, drawing on experiential expertise to maintain trust and community cohesion. Forum growth and technological innovations present opportunities and challenges, highlighting the need to balance scalability with authenticity in online support communities.
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Why Long, Uninterrupted Sitting May Matter for Cancer Prevention

Public health advice has long emphasized exercise: move more, meet weekly activity targets, reduce time spent sitting. But a growing body of evidence suggests that the pattern of inactivity may also matter. Sitting for long, uninterrupted periods may not carry the same health implications as the same amount of sedentary time broken up by movement.

A new study published in PLOS Medicine adds cancer outcomes to that discussion. Researchers analyzed accelerometer data from 91,292 UK Biobank participants who wore wrist activity monitors for seven days and were then followed for a median of more than 12 years. The study found that prolonged sedentary behavior was associated with higher risk of cancer mortality and cancer incidence, while interrupted sedentary behavior showed the opposite pattern.

Beyond “sit less, move more”

Sedentary behavior includes waking activities such as sitting, reclining, or lying down that require very low energy expenditure. Most guidelines and public health messages focus on total sedentary time. That is understandable: total sitting time is easy to communicate and has been repeatedly linked to poor cardiometabolic outcomes.

But the new study asks a more precise question: does it matter whether sedentary time happens in long blocks or is regularly interrupted?

The researchers defined prolonged sedentary behavior as bouts lasting at least 30 minutes in which at least 90% of the time was sedentary. Interrupted sedentary behavior included shorter bouts or sedentary periods broken up by movement. This distinction allowed the team to examine not only how much time people spent inactive, but how that inactivity was distributed throughout the day.

Long, unbroken sedentary bouts linked to higher risk

Each additional hour per day of prolonged sedentary behavior was associated with a 9% higher risk of cancer death. Prolonged sedentary time was also associated with higher overall cancer incidence, obesity-related cancers, and type 2 diabetes-related cancers.

Interrupted sedentary behavior showed an inverse association across the same outcomes. In other words, sedentary time that was broken up by activity was not linked to the same pattern of risk as long, uninterrupted bouts.

The authors summarize the implication clearly: “These findings suggest that not only the total amount of sedentary time, but also how sedentary time is accumulated, may be important for cancer risk.”

This matters because sedentary behavior is widespread and often built into modern work, transport, and leisure routines. For many people, the practical question is not whether they can avoid sitting altogether, but whether they can interrupt long sitting periods often enough to reduce risk.

Light movement should not be ignored

The study also used substitution models to estimate what might happen if sedentary time were replaced with different types of activity. Replacing one hour per day of prolonged sedentary behavior with light physical activity was associated with a 12% lower risk of cancer death. Replacing 30 minutes per day with moderate physical activity was also associated with lower cancer mortality risk.

That finding is important because light activity is more achievable for many people than structured exercise. Standing up, walking slowly, doing household tasks, or taking brief movement breaks may not feel like “exercise,” but they may still interrupt metabolically harmful patterns of prolonged inactivity.

As the authors note, “light movement shouldn’t be ignored.”

The biological rationale is plausible. Experimental studies have shown that breaking up sitting with short activity bouts can improve glucose and insulin responses compared with uninterrupted sitting. Prolonged sedentary time may also contribute to low-grade inflammation, impaired immune function, insulin dysregulation, and ectopic fat accumulation—pathways that have all been discussed in relation to cancer risk.

A public health signal, not proof of causation

The study has important strengths. It used device-measured activity rather than self-reported sitting time, reducing recall bias. It also followed participants for more than a decade and included multiple cancer outcomes.

Still, the findings should be interpreted carefully. This was an observational study, so it cannot prove that prolonged sitting directly causes cancer or cancer death. UK Biobank participants are also known to be healthier and more physically active than the general UK population, which may limit generalizability. Activity was measured over only seven days, and the monitors could not capture the context of sedentary behavior, such as whether someone was sitting at work, watching television, driving, or resting because of underlying illness.

The authors also note that residual confounding cannot be ruled out. People who sit for long uninterrupted periods may differ from others in ways that are difficult to fully measure, including occupation, frailty, health status, or broader lifestyle patterns.

Rethinking cancer prevention in everyday terms

Cancer prevention is often framed around smoking, alcohol, diet, body weight, vaccination, screening, and exercise. Sedentary behavior is increasingly part of that picture, but this study suggests the message may need to become more specific.

The goal may not only be to reduce total sitting time, but to avoid accumulating that time in long, uninterrupted blocks. For public health, that is a potentially actionable target: movement breaks at work, walk-and-talk meetings, standing transitions, household activity, or brief light-intensity movement after long periods of sitting.

The study does not suggest that movement breaks replace established cancer prevention measures. Nor does it mean that every hour of sitting carries the same risk for every person. But it does support a more nuanced view of inactivity: the body may respond differently to sedentary time that is regularly interrupted than to sedentary time accumulated in prolonged bouts.

As activity monitors become more common and prevention science becomes more personalized, cancer prevention advice may eventually move beyond broad exercise targets toward daily behavior patterns. For now, the message is simple enough: long sitting spells may be worth breaking, even with light movement.

The post Why Long, Uninterrupted Sitting May Matter for Cancer Prevention appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.

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STAT+: Four major biotech updates to catch up on

Happy post-fourth. Hope you had a nice extended weekend, and hi from San Francisco! 

Today, we’re reading about Medicare proposing staggering cuts to 340B payments, Republicans moving to preserve diversity in clinical trials, and a former surgeon general, Jerome Adams, offering counsel on peptides regulation.

The need-to-know this morning

  • Novartis is buying the privately held Myricx Bio for $1.1 billion upfront, picking up an antibody-drug conjugate platform designed to create cancer-fighting drugs for different solid tumors and overcome some of the limitations of existing ADCs. The deal for the U.K.-based Myricx includes milestone payments of up to $400 million and extends Novartis’ recent acquisition spree.

Anthropic CEO understands biology’s stubborn limitations

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is tempering his own bold predictions about AI transforming biotechnology, STAT’s Matt Herper writes. While, sure, AI could eventually compress decades of scientific progress into years, biology’s inherent complexity and glacial timelines mean that future remains years away.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a Novartis acquisition, Republicans backing clinical trial diversity, and more

Good morning, and welcome to a new week from STAT’s London outpost, with Andrew Joseph here filling in for Mr. Pharmalot. This country is celebrating its World Cup win last night (or rather, very early this morning local time — lots of bleary-eyed people out in the neighborhood today), and I can only hope that the U.S. will be in the same place tomorrow. Yet the World Cup (and Wimbledon) can’t completely distract from the news of the day, so onto the headlines we go. … 

Novartis is pushing deeper into antibody-drug conjugate development, paying $1.1 billion upfront to buy Myricx Bio for a pipeline based on a novel payload, Fierce Biotech writes. The Swiss pharma company has been slower to buy into ADCs than some of its peers, but it’s made its move with London-based Myricx, which is designing cancer treatments that deliver N-myristoyltransferase inhibitor (NMTi) payloads. It’s a bit of a different approach from other ADCs, which Novartis predicts could tackle resistance and other limitations of existing payloads, broadening the use of ADCs across multiple tumor types. 

While clinical trials got caught up in the Trump administration’s attack on policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, congressional Republicans would like to change that, STAT says. Last month, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill, mostly along party lines, to fund the Food and Drug Administration that was accompanied by a report that, while not legally binding, tells agency officials what congressional appropriators expected of them. The report states that it wants the FDA to continue implementing a law that requires companies to give the FDA their plans for diversifying clinical trials.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…