Icotrokinra

A roundup of the most newsworthy healthcare press releases from PR Newswire this week, including Sanofi's $1.6B acquisition and a groundbreaking surgical nerve treatment for veterans. NEW YORK, July 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help healthcare journalists and consumers stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a recap of some major stories from the week that shouldn't be missed. The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download. Continue Reading PR Newswire Weekly Health Press Release Roundup, July 21-25, 2025. Waystar to Acquire Iodine Software, Accelerating the AI-Powered Transformation of Healthcare Payments Waystar brings a decade-long track record of applying AI pervasively across its software platform to simplify healthcare payments. Iodine extends that leadership into clinical intelligence software, leveraging proprietary AI models trained on one of the industry's largest clinical datasets, representing more than a third of all U.S. inpatient discharges. Vicebio, next-generation vaccine biotech, to be acquired by Sanofi for US$1.6 billion "Vicebio and its incredibly passionate team have been driven by the ambition to develop next-generation vaccines aimed at targeting multiple life-threatening respiratory viruses simultaneously. This acquisition validates our ability to combine innovation and deep scientific expertise towards a common goal of advancing public health prevention," said Dr. Emmanuel Hanon, Chief Executive Officer of Vicebio. Former Sandoz Inc. CEO Don DeGolyer Leads PharmaTech Startup Ategenos as Company Prepares Public Launch Ategenos has been quietly developing a novel platform that integrates pharmaceutical science with real-time digital health technologies to address adherence in critical dose management. The company will share details on its SmartPatch platform and initial partnerships in the coming weeks. Cambridge Innovation Institute Announces Acquisition of Integrative Healthcare Symposium and Integrative Practitioner from Diversified "CII has been a leader in life science conferences for over three decades, and we are excited to add this new conference and publication covering other essential aspects of healthcare to our expanding CHI portfolio. The many facets of holistic medicine are growingly important within healthcare and will benefit from additional advancement via opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration," said Benjamin Lakin, PhD, CEO of Cambridge Innovation Institute. Answer ALS Launches AI Drug Development Collaboration with GATC Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Tulane to Advance ALS Treatment Discovery At the center of this effort is Dr. Jeffrey Keller of Pennington Biomedical, working in close partnership with Dr. Aron Culotta of Tulane. Together, they will lead a coordinated statewide effort of connecting researchers with expertise in AI, drug discovery, neuroscience, and clinical care, while all working together to drive innovation toward ALS treatments. Tulavi and VHSS Partner to Bring Groundbreaking Surgical Nerve Treatment to Veterans Impacted by Amputations and Traumatic Injuries The allay™ Hydrogel Cap is a novel, fully absorbable, and entirely sutureless medical device that provides a perfectly conforming and protective barrier to the injured nerve, supporting nerve recovery while reducing the risk of neuroma formation. Once deployed, the hydrogel cap remains in place for approximately eight months, protecting the nerve and blocking axonal escape during the critical period of neuroma formation. Johnson & Johnson seeks first icotrokinra U.S. FDA approval aiming to revolutionize treatment paradigm for adults and adolescents with plaque psoriasis "The rapid patient enrollment across our ICONIC clinical program underscores the unmet need for an advanced plaque psoriasis treatment that meaningfully addresses their needs and preferences," said Liza O'Dowd, MD, Vice President, Immunodermatology and Respiratory Disease Area Lead, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. New Non-Invasive Glaucoma Treatment Offered for First Time in U.S. Eyetronic therapy provides external neural stimulation to the optic nerve of patients suffering from glaucoma, a disease in which the optic nerve is permanently damaged resulting in vision loss. Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world, affecting over 4 million people in the U.S. and more than 80 million people worldwide . Klotho Neurosciences, Inc. Partners with AAVnerGene Inc. to Make Klotho's Gene Therapy Assets "KLTO hopes to work with AAVnerGene for manufacturing several of our product candidates composed of a tissue-specific promoter driving our Klotho gene to produce the Klotho protein and elevated concentrations of the protein in specific, targeted tissues and organs affected by these neurologic and neuromuscular diseases," said Dr. Joseph Sinkule, the CEO of KLTO. Fangzhou and Novo Nordisk Signed Collaboration Memorandum to Establish a New Ecosystem for Health Management By leveraging Novo Nordisk's expertise and innovative products in diabetes and obesity treatment, Fangzhou plans to employ its smart healthcare ecosystem and robust technology infrastructure to create a comprehensive health management service. This will include medication guidance, reminders, efficacy tracking, and health education, effectively shaping the value chain in the glucose control and weight loss sector. Avidity Biosciences Receives FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Delpacibart Zotadirsen (del-zota) for the Treatment of DMD in People with Mutations Amenable to Exon 44 Skipping DMD is a rare genetic condition that is characterized by progressive muscle damage and weakness due to the loss of dystrophin protein that typically starts at a very young age. Del-zota is designed to deliver phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs) to skeletal muscle and heart tissue to specifically skip exon 44 of the dystrophin gene and enable production of near-full length dystrophin. Novavax's H5N1 Vaccine Candidate Demonstrates Immunogenicity in Preclinical Study Results showed that a single dose administered by either intranasal (IN) or intramuscular (IM) routes induced neutralizing antibody responses (IN: 1:54; IM: 1:1,160), at or above the 1:40 titer generally considered to be a protective antibody response. The data showed even higher levels of immunity after two doses. For more news like this, check out all of the latest health-related releases from PR Newswire. Do you have a health press release to distribute? Sign up with PR Newswire to share your story with the audiences who matter most. Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists. 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Abivax on Tuesday reported upbeat outcomes from two pivotal induction trials evaluating obefazimod, a first-in-class oral miR-124 enhancer, demonstrating significant remission rates in patients with moderate to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC). The news sent the company’s shares up nearly 500% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.“We are thrilled to report outcomes that not only met but exceeded the bar set by our Phase IIb trial,” said Fabio Cataldi, chief medical officer at Abivax. Earlier in the month, Citizens JMP analysts expressed confidence that the trials would read out positively, dubbing them as one of the “high-conviction clinical catalysts” of the third quarter.The Phase III ABTECT-1 and ABTECT-2 trials collectively enrolled 1,275 participants across 36 countries, who were randomised to receive one of two obefazimod doses once daily or placebo. Notably, 47.3% of participants previously had an inadequate response to advanced therapies, including JAK inhibitors.Top-line results from both trials showed that the 50-mg once-daily dose of obefazimod achieved the primary endpoint of clinical remission at week 8, with pooled remission rates of 16.4% versus placebo. Individual placebo-adjusted remission rates were 19.3% in ABTECT-1 and 13.4% in ABTECT-2. Moreover, the 50-mg dose met all key secondary endpoints, demonstrating significant benefits across clinical response, endoscopic improvement, and histologic-endoscopic mucosal improvement measures. On the other hand, the 25-mg dose of obefazimod met the main goal in ABTECT-1 with a 21.4% placebo-adjusted remission rate but failed to reach statistical significance in ABTECT-2. The lower dose, however, managed to achieve a a pooled clinical response rate of 28.6% versus placebo. Safety analysis revealed no new safety signals, with obefazimod showing favourable tolerability across both dose groups. Treatment-emergent adverse events resulting in discontinuation were reported in 5.3% and 4.7% of participants receiving the 50-mg dose in ABTECT-1 and ABTECT-2, respectively.Filings in worksMeanwhile, the ongoing ABTECT Maintenance trial has enrolled 678 patients who achieved clinical response from the induction trials, with top-line results expected in the second quarter of next year. “Pending successful results from the 44-week maintenance trial, we are preparing to submit a New Drug Application to the FDA in the second half of 2026,” said Abivax CEO Marc de Garidel.  The ABTECT findings will likely prep Abivax for a potential showdown with Johnson & Johnson’s  IL-23-blocking oral peptide icotrokinra (JNJ-2113), which hit the mark in a Phase IIb UC study earlier this year. For more on this, read: Vital Signs: Abivax swings for the fences to hit J&J.With Abivax quickly burning through its cash reserves — which stood at approximately $71.4 million as of June — the miR-124 enhancer could be a decisive asset for the French biotech.