CrossBridge Bio, Inc.

Plus, news about Disc Medicine, OSE Immunotherapeutics, CrossBridge Bio, Lomond Therapeutics, Relief Therapeutics and Renexxion: Novo Nordisk, Ascendis Pharma ink deal: The Danish drugmaker will pay up to $285 million as part of an agreement to develop a once-monthly GLP-1 receptor agonist using Ascendis’ TransCon platform. Ascendis may also receive up to $77.5 million in milestones and royalties for other metabolic or cardiovascular disease product candidates that they develop. — Jaimy Lee KalVista’s new royalty deal and financing: Per the new agreement with DRI Healthcare Trust, the company will receive $100 million upfront, a $22 million payment if sebetralstat gets FDA approval, and up to $57 million in sales milestones. KalVista also disclosed a $55M offering as it gears up for the FDA’s decision in June on its hereditary angioedema drug. Its stock $KALV was up about 12% on Monday morning. — Jaimy Lee Disc Medicine sets sights on accelerated approval: CEO John Quisel said that the company was “thrilled” with the outcome of its end-of-Phase-2 meeting with US regulators regarding its rare blood cell disease treatment, bitopertin. The biotech believes it has coalesced with the agency on surrogate endpoint data for an accelerated approval application in addition to parameters for a confirmatory trial. Disc is expected to meet with the FDA again to “finalize the details” of bitopertin’s confirmatory study. Its stock $IRON gained about 22% on Monday morning. — Max Bayer OSE’s Phase 2 data for ulcerative colitis drug: The trial hit the primary endpoint of improvement in the Modified Mayo Score, which is a test measuring disease in UC patients. The drug, called lusvertikimab, also showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful results in the study’s secondary endpoints. OSE CEO Nicolas Poirier said in a statement that the company believes the drug has promise in “various chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.” Its stock $OSE was up about 5% on Monday morning. — Katherine Lewin ADC biotech closes $10M seed round: CrossBridge Bio said the money will go toward development of CBB-120, its lead candidate, and a TROP-2 dual-payload antibody-drug conjugate for solid tumors. The funding will also “further de-risk” its ADC platform in order to improve the safety and efficacy for current and future candidates. — Katherine Lewin Lomond’s reverse merger: The company, which is developing treatments for hematologic cancers, announced the transaction with Venetian-1 Acquisition in addition to a $44 million placement. Investors included OrbiMed and Deerfield Management Company. — Jaimy Lee Another reverse merger, this time for Relief and Renexxion: The Swiss drugmaker proposed the merger with Renexxion, which is developing gastrointestinal therapies, after undergoing a strategic review. — Jaimy Lee