The latest from small and Emerging Pharma companies featuring Travere Therapeutics, Everest Medicines, NewLimit, T-Curx, Pantherna Therapeutics, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Oscotec, Circio and GenAssist. 

For news on the large and mid-sized bio/pharmaceutical companies, see Global Briefs. 

* Travere Therapeutics, Everest Medicines in $1.2-Bn Rare Kidney Disease Drug Pact
* NewLimit Raises $435 M for Age-Related Liver Disease Drug 
* T-Curx Acquires Pantherna Therapeutics for In-Vivo CAR T therapies 
* Agios Pharmaceuticals, Oscotec in Rare Autoimmune Blood Disorder Drug 
* Circio, GenAssist Partner for In Vivo Gene Therapy

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Travere Therapeutics, Everest Medicines in $1.2-Bn Rare Kidney Disease Drug Pact 
Travere Therapeutics, a San Diego, California-based bio/pharmaceutical company, has entered into an exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement with Everest Medicines, a Shanghai-based bio/pharmaceutical company, for the development and commercialization of civorebrutinib, a covalent reversible Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor in all markets outside China and certain countries in East and Southeast Asia, in a deal worth up to $1.2 billion ($112 million upfront and $1.1 billion in milestone payments). 

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NewLimit Raises $435 M for Age-Related Liver Disease Drug 
NewLimit, a South San Francisco, California-based bio/pharmaceutical company, has raised $435 million through a Series C financing round to support clinical development of the company’s age-related liver-disease drug. The company applies epigenetic reprogramming to restore cellular function into cell. The company’s first aging reprogramming medicine is expected to enter clinical trials next year (2027). The drug is designed to heal the liver faster following injury, prevent damage from dietary challenges, and accelerate recovery tied to alcohol consumption, according to NewLimit. 

NewLimit was founded in 2021 by Coinbase CEO and Co-founder Brian Armstrong, former GV partner and bioengineer Blake Byers, and computational biologist Jacob Kimmel, who serves as NewLimit’s CEO & President. 

Among its investors in this financing round were Eli Lilly Venture, the venture-capital arm of Eli Lilly and Company.  

Source: NewLimit  

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T-Curx Acquires Pantherna Therapeutics for In-Vivo CAR T therapies 
T-CURX, a Würzburg, Germany-based bio/pharmaceutical company focused on CAR-T therapies, has agreed to acquire Pantherna Therapeutics, a German bio/pharmaceutical company specializing in mRNA engineering and lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technologies. Pantherna will continue to operate as Pantherna Therapeutics as a wholly owned subsidiary of T-CURX. The complementary expertise and proprietary technologies of both companies will be used for the clinical translation of CAR-T strategies with a focus on clinical validation of in vivo CAR-T therapies. 

Source: T-CURX 

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Agios Pharmaceuticals, Oscotec in Rare Autoimmune Blood Disorder Drug 
Agios Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based commercial-stage bio/pharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases, has formed an agreement with Oscotec, a clinical-stage drug discovery and development company focused on immunology and oncology, to license the exclusive global rights to cevidoplenib, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in a deal worth up to $165 million ($25 million upfront and $140 million in milestone payments). Agios will focus on advancing cevidoplenib for the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia, a rare autoimmune blood disorder in which the immune system destroys platelets, leading to low platelet counts and an increased risk of bleeding. 

Source: Agios Pharmaceuticals 

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Circio, GenAssist Partner for In Vivo Gene Therapy 
Circio Holding, an Osio, Norway-based bio/pharmaceutical company developing circular RNA expression technology for gene and cell therapies, and GenAssist, a Suzhou, China-based bio/pharmaceutical company focused on genetic medicines, have entered a research collaboration to develop circVec-enhanced adeno-associated virus (AAV)  vectors specifically engineered for in vivo cell therapy and targeted, low dose systemic gene therapy. 

Source: Circio