Month: June 2026

Dr Rosanne Dunn, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at HaemaLogiX, authored an article for Drug Discovery World that explored how the discovery of a new class of tumour‑specific antigens is transforming how we treat plasma cell dyscrasias.

"Proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs, anti‑CD38 antibodies, and, more recently BCMA‑directed CAR‑T cells and bispecifics, have each extended survival and transformed expectations. But the malignant plasma cell clone adapts, escapes, and ultimately progresses through every line of therapy. The central limitation is not the ingenuity of modalities but the biology of the targets themselves" she said.

Read the full article here. 

In June, Cereno Scientific CMO and Head of R&D Rahul Agrawal spoke with Clinical Leader Executive Editor Abby Proch about the scientific and strategic rationale behind extending the company’s Phase IIb study duration. He also shares how patient input, regulatory guidance, and earlier-phase data shaped a design intended to generate more meaningful and durable insights in a complex, heterogeneous disease.

Read the full article here. 

Cereno Scientific and Racura Oncology spoke to DDN Assistant editor Allison Whitten about drug repurposing, in light of the recent FDA announcement that it had launched an initiative seeking to target unmet needs across many conditions. 

“This initiative is long overdue, but like all new FDA initiatives it will be the details that matter,” Daniel Tillett, CEO of Racura Oncology, told DDN. “The FDA recognizes that there is little or no commercial incentive to pursue labeling changes for drug repurposing if a drug is off patent. Until there is a viable mechanism to recoup the costs involved in running repurposing studies, commercial interest in drug repurposing will remain muted.”

While Sten Sorensen, CEO of Cereno Scientific, commented that the new FDA initiative could help their clinical program move forward in two main ways. “A more structured and supportive regulatory framework for repurposed drugs has the potential to streamline interactions with the FDA, reduce perceived development risk, and accelerate the path toward approval,” he said. “From a partnering perspective, the initiative also matters. Big pharma, when evaluating transactions, views repurposed drugs as a risk, and a clear regulatory signal of support from FDA for repurposed drug development improves the attractiveness of assets like ours in those conversations.”

However, Sorensen added that “demonstrating disease-modification in a complex disease like PAH requires robust, long-duration clinical data, and that takes time and resources regardless of the regulatory environment. Generating the kind of evidence that satisfies both regulators and potential partners remains the central challenge, and one we are addressing head-on through the design of our global Phase 2b study.”

Read the full article here. 

Fierce Biotech spoke with Affibody about the plans for its Phase III IL-17A inhibitor izokibep. 

Senior editor James Waldron wrote: "Affibody brought Week 52 data along to EULAR 2026 to remind people of what the drug can do when compared to PsA mainstays like Novartis’ Cosentyx and UCB’s Bimzelx. Affibody’s slides show izokibep holding its own on measurements like a 50% improvement in rheumatology symptoms (ACR50), as well as a 70% improvement and the proportion of patients who saw a 100% improvement in psoriasis area and severity (PASI100)."

Read the full article here. 

In a recent article featured in In Vivo, the CEO of Albus Health, Mikesh Udani, explores why nighttime physiology is still under‑represented in clinical evidence, and how that is beginning to change.

Overnight symptoms across respiratory, neurological, paediatric and cardiometabolic disease remain largely invisible to tools like diaries, morning recall and sleep‑lab assessments. Yet these signals often reflect treatment response, risk and disease biology.

The op‑ed highlights three shifts now reshaping evidence generation:
● Improvements in sleep and nighttime symptoms are emerging as a meaningful dimension of treatment response.
● Objective nighttime data is now achievable at scale. Entire nights of physiology no longer need to be compressed into a single morning entry.
● Passive, contactless remote monitoring is moving upstream into core study design.

The piece also points to the growing value of early‑warning signals such as passive detection of respiratory deterioration days before symptoms appear. This has implications far beyond respiratory disease, from oncology safety monitoring to neurological progression.

Read the full commentary here.