Ortho Clinical Diagnostics is hoping to pay down a large portion of its debts by riding a wave of COVID-19 and broader in vitro lab testing demands to a $1.5 billion IPO.

A drug that Pfizer passed over but saw a revitalized cancer R&D-focused GlaxoSmithKline jump on for $4.2 billion has come up as a dud in a key trial pitting it against U.S. Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda.

The November election now seems such a long time ago: It has, in fact, been less than three months, but that time has been filled with political and scientific catastrophes that will shape President Joe Biden’s term in office.

Chinese cancer biotech Adagene has filed to raise up to $125 million in a Nasdaq IPO. The listing will give Adagene the means to run early-phase clinical trials of antibodies against CD137 and CTLA-4.

Vera Therapeutics has raised $80 million to take a drug licensed from Merck KGaA into a phase 2b kidney disease clinical trial. The drug, atacicept, has failed multiple autoimmune clinical trials, but the leadership at Vera, which is heavy on former Gilead staffers, thinks it has a future in IgA nephropathy.

Philips has moved to acquire Capsule Technologies—a provider of data platforms that aim to connect all of the medical devices and record systems within a hospital—to help build out its integrated care and vital sign monitoring solutions.

Eli Lilly, via its Loxo Oncology biotech unit, is signing up to a three-therapy deal with Merus focused on T-cell redirecting bispecific antibody work.

• Potential first-in-class disease-modifying biologic in late-stage clinical studies
• Experienced executive development team from Gilead Sciences

NAPLES, Fla., — Enveric Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENVB) (“Enveric” or the “Company”), a patient-first biotechnology company developing novel cannabinoid medicines to improve quality of life for cancer patients, today announced the closing on January 14, 2021, of its $10 million registered direct offering consisting of the purchase and sale of 2,221,358 shares of Enveric’s common stock and common stock equivalents, at a purchase price of $4.5018 per share. Also, Enveric has issued to the investors unregistered warrants to acquire 1,666,019 shares of Common Stock at $4.9519 per share, exercisable immediately and terminating five years after the date of issuance.

• Positive first results from the complete dose-finding part of a phase Ib/II study of tumor-agnostic NBTXR3 (PEP503) activated by radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy for patients with rectal cancer show that intratumoral injection of the product candidate was feasible and it was well tolerated at all dose levels
• An injection procedure-related dose-limiting toxicity of urinary tract infection was observed in the study, however there were no observed adverse events or severe adverse events associated with NBTXR3
• More than 70% of patients showed objective tumor response after concurrent chemoradiation
• Approximately 90% of patients underwent total mesorectal excision (surgery), and 17.6% achieved pathological complete response
• 50% of the patients receiving surgery had good tumor regression (tumor regression grade 0 or 1)