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Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Enlivex Gets OK to Expand Phase II Sepsis Trial Into France and Belgium

 Enlivex Therapeutics Ltd. (Nasdaq: ENLV, the “Company”), a clinical-stage macrophage reprogramming immunotherapy company, today announced that the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) and the Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) have cleared the amended protocol of the Company’s Phase II trial evaluating Allocetra™ in patients with sepsis. The approved protocol, which previously received clearances in Israel, Greece and Spain, enables the treatment of newly recruited patients with a frozen Allocetra™ formulation, as well as an expansion of the study’s target population, which was originally limited to patients with pneumonia-associated sepsis, to include patients whose septic condition stems from biliary, urinary tract or abdominal infections.

The Phase II trial is expected to include 80 to 160 patients across four cohorts, receiving varying doses of either AllocetraTM or a placebo, all in addition to standard-of-care therapy. The trial's two primary endpoints are safety (number and severity of adverse events and severe adverse events) and efficacy (change from baseline in sequential organ failure (SOFA) score) assessments throughout a 28-day follow-up period. The trial is supported by previously reported positive results from a Phase Ib investigator-initiated trial that showed vastly improved clinical outcomes, including SOFA scores, duration of hospitalization, and mortality, in AllocetraTM-treated sepsis patients, as compared to a group of matched historical controls who received standard-of-care therapy.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/enlivex-receives-authorizations-french-belgian-130000145.html

Merck upped to Buy from Neutral by B of A

 Target to $130 from $110

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=MRK&p=d

Pulmatrix: Positive Topline in Phase 1 Migraine Trial

 PUR3100 was safe and all doses had fewer GI side effects compared to IV DHE

PUR3100 demonstrated a five-minute Tmax and Cmax within the targeted therapeutic range for all three doses tested

Pulmatrix, Inc. (NASDAQ: PULM), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative inhaled therapies to address serious disease using its patented iSPERSE™ technology, today announced successful completion of a Phase 1 trial evaluating safety and pharmacokinetics of PUR3100 in healthy volunteers.  PUR3100 uses the Company's iSPERSE formulation technology to create an orally inhaled dry powder formulation of dihydroergotamine (DHE) for the treatment of acute migraine.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pulmatrix-announces-positive-top-line-140500360.html

Checkpoint Applies to Advance Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Treatment

  Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (“Checkpoint”) (Nasdaq: CKPT), a clinical-stage immunotherapy and targeted oncology company, today announced the submission of a Biologics License Application (“BLA”) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) for the approval of cosibelimab, its investigational anti-PD-L1 antibody, as a treatment for patients with metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (“cSCC”) or locally advanced cSCC who are not candidates for curative surgery or radiation.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/checkpoint-therapeutics-submits-biologics-license-130000935.html

Pfizer cut to Neutral from Buy by B of A

 Target $60

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=PFE&p=d

U.S. Postal Service can continue to deliver prescription abortion medication - DOJ

 he U.S. Postal Service (USPS) can continue to deliver prescription abortion medication despite a June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a landmark abortion rights decision, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The department's Office of Legal Counsel said in an opinion sought by USPS that the mailing of mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly used to terminate pregnancies, did not violate an 1873 law known as the Comstock Act.

USPS said in a statement the opinion "confirms that the Comstock Act does not require the Postal Service to change our current practice, which has been to consider packages containing mifepristone and misoprostol to be mailable under federal law in the same manner as other prescription drugs."

Mifepristone is a prescription drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to induce an abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy. It must be followed by a second drug, misoprostol. Both drugs also have other uses.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the opinion.

The FDA in December 2021 permanently eased some restrictions on the medications, allowing them to be sent by mail rather than restricting them to in-person dispensing.

USPS said it took no position on abortion policy at either the federal or state level and noted the Justice Department opinion "specifies that the mailing of those drugs to a particular jurisdiction that may significantly restrict access to an abortion is not a sufficient basis" for the USPS to refuse to deliver them.

USPS said the Justice Department concurred with its "determination that under the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, any state laws that may apply to the shipment of those prescription drugs cannot be applied to Postal Service employees who are complying with their duties under federal law."

The Supreme Court's decision overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized women's constitutional right to abortion put a spotlight on abortion by medication, which accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions.

A Dutch supplier of abortion pills by mail saw demand surge in the wake of the decision, which allowed more than 20 states to begin enforcing new restrictions on abortion.

Restrictions on the abortion medication lifted in 2021 had been in place since the FDA had approved the drug in 2000. They had been lifted temporarily earlier in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling women to consult healthcare providers by telemedicine and receive the pills by mail.

G1: Phase 2 Bladder Cancer Trial; Progression Free Survival (PFS) Data Expected in Mid-2023

 G1 Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GTHX), a commercial-stage oncology company, today provided an initial update on PRESERVE 3, an ongoing Phase 2, randomized, open-label study of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy and maintenance therapy with the immune checkpoint inhibitor, avelumab, administered alone, or in combination with trilaciclib, in patients with untreated, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC). Additional safety and efficacy data, including the primary endpoint of progression free survival (PFS), are anticipated in the middle of 2023.  

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/g1-therapeutics-provides-initial-phase-113000621.html