Veru: Combo to Optimize Weight Loss by Preventing Muscle Wasting, Increasing Fat Loss in Phase 2b Study

 In 5 clinical studies involving 968 older men and postmenopausal women with and without muscle wasting, enobosarm has demonstrated the ability to decrease fat mass, increase muscle mass, and improve muscle strength and physical function --

-- Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and other GLP-1 drugs cause a significant loss of both fat and muscle; in older obese or overweight patients who may already have low muscle mass, the further drop in muscle mass of all-important muscles increases risk of muscle weakness, functional limitations, mobility disability, falls, higher hospitalizations, and greater mortality --

-- The Company plans to conduct a Phase 2b double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate enobosarm and GLP-1 drug combination for weight loss to prevent muscle loss and to preferentially increase fat loss in patients who are overweight or have obesity --

-- Phase 2b clinical obesity study to be open for enrollment as early as calendar Q1 2024 --

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/10/04/2754580/11676/en/Veru-Reports-Muscle-Data-from-5-Clinical-Studies-of-Enobosarm-that-Support-the-Advancement-of-Enobosarm-in-Combination-with-Weight-Loss-GLP-1-Drugs-Ozempic-Wegovy-or-Mounjaro-to-Op.html

Inhibikase Orphan Status for Treatment of Multiple System Atrophy

 Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IKT) (Inhibikase or Company), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing protein kinase inhibitor therapeutics to modify the course of Parkinson's disease ("PD"), Parkinson's-related disorders and other diseases of the Abelson Tyrosine Kinases, today announced that risvodetinib (IkT-148009) has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of Multiple System Atrophy (MSA).

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/10/04/2754577/0/en/Inhibikase-Therapeutics-Receives-FDA-Orphan-Drug-Designation-for-Risvodetinib-for-the-Treatment-of-Multiple-System-Atrophy.html

Conduit Pharma on start of trading

  Conduit Pharmaceuticals Limited (“Conduit Pharmaceuticals”), a multi-asset clinical-stage disease-agnostic life science company providing an efficient model for compound development, and Murphy Canyon Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (Nasdaq: MURF) (“MURF”), announced today the completion of the previously announced business combination (the “Transaction”).

• Conduit expects to commence trading on September 25, 2023, under ticker symbol “CDT” for its common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market and ticker symbol “CDTTW” for its warrants on The Nasdaq Capital Market.

• At the debut of trading, there will be a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $720 million. Existing Conduit Pharmaceuticals shareholders will own approximately 90% of the combined company’s common stock issued and outstanding as of the closing.

Conduit Pharmaceuticals is led by a team of pharmaceutical industry veterans. Dr. Dave Tapolczay, former CEO of LifeArc and Worldwide Head of Chemistry at Zeneca Agrochemicals, is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, former Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer, serves as Non-Executive Chair of the Board of Directors.

Dr. Tapolczay commented, “By acquiring rights to develop assets that have successfully completed Phase 1 trials from large pharmaceutical companies, we believe that we may dramatically reduce risks inherent in the traditional biotech model.”

Dr. Lewis-Hall added, “Conduit’s model positions it as a trailblazer in the industry: providing a platform to move deprioritized assets forward by way of a lean and focused pathway. I am excited about Conduit’s potential to bring new treatments to patients that need them.”

Conduit is a disease agnostic life science company providing an efficient model for compound development. Conduit is a departure from the traditional pharma/biotech business model whereby, typically companies shepherd their assets through regulatory approval, Conduit acquires assets that are Phase II-ready and then seeks an exit through third-party license deals following successful clinical trials. Conduit is led by a highly experienced team of pharmaceutical executives, including Dr. David Tapolczay and Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, and was established to fund the development of clinical molecules licensed from major pharmaceutical companies.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/conduit-pharmaceuticals-murphy-canyon-acquisition-130100599.html

Karuna Data Evaluating KarXT in Schizophrenia

 

• New efficacy, safety and tolerability analyses from the EMERGENT-3 trial support KarXT's potential as a new treatment option for schizophrenia
• Exploratory analysis will examine KarXT's impact on cognition in patients with schizophrenia in the EMERGENT-2 and EMERGENT-3 trials
• Company submitted New Drug Application (NDA) for KarXT, which includes data from the EMERGENT program, to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2023

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/karuna-therapeutics-to-present-data-from-the-emergent-program-evaluating-karxt-in-schizophrenia-at-the-36th-european-college-of-neuropsychopharmacology-ecnp-congress/

Majority of Newborns With Spinal Muscular Atrophy Treated With Genentech’s Evrysdi Sit Independently After 1 Year Treatment

 

• RAINBOWFISH study met its primary endpoint with 80% of babies sitting without support for at least 5 seconds after 1 year of Evrysdi treatment — without treatment these babies would never be able to sit
• All babies were able to swallow and feed orally and none required permanent ventilation
• Evrysdi is the only non-invasive SMA therapy and is approved in over 100 countries with more than 11,000 patients treated globally

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/majority-of-newborn-babies-with-spinal-muscular-atrophy-sma-treated-with-genentech-s-evrysdi-able-to-sit-independently-after-1-year-of-treatment/

New Panasonic EV Battery Plant In Kansas To Be Powered By Coal

 Panasonic's new battery plant in Kansas will require an amount of energy equivalent to that used by a small city, forcing a nearby utility to halt the shutdown of a coal-fired power plant. This has sparked criticism that electric vehicle production and electric vehicles aren't 'ESG-friendly.' 

According to The Kansas City Star, citing documents filed by power company Evergy with the Kansas Corporation Commission, Panasonic's 4-million-square-foot plant in Johnson County will double the utility's load and require two new substations and upgrades to 31 miles of transmission lines. 

Documents show Evergy will have to keep a Lawrence coal-fired power plant online until 2028 to meet the new load at the EV battery plant that will be ramped up as production begins at the end of 2025/early 2026. The utility plans to transition from coal to natural gas by the decade's end.  

"Beyond the sheer magnitude of load and load factor, Panasonic's construction schedule, and, in turn, its energy needs, are being planned on a very aggressive schedule. With energy needs starting to ramp in 2024 and full load requirements by 2026, there is urgency to procure capacity and energy to fulfill the expected energy usage schedule," said Kayla Messamore, Evergy's vice president of strategy and planning. 

Currently, no other power generation source in the area can supply enough on-demand power to the Panasonic battery plant. In testimony from Ryan Mulvany, Evergy's vice president of distribution, he said the plant will demand approximately 200 to 250 megawatts (or the equivalent of a small city). 

Despite the $4 billion cost of the factory, the Japanese company is "poised to get as much as $6.8 billion from provisions in last year's federal Inflation Reduction Act," the local paper said in July. The company is expected to receive over $8 billion in federal, state, and local incentives and support the plant in Johnson County. 

Zack Pistora, a lobbyist with the Kansas Sierra Club, called the EV battery plant powered by coal a "shame": 

"Not only are we squandering an opportunity to access local Kansas clean energy resources that invest in our state, but it also is not doing anyone else a favor as far as more greenhouse gas pollution."

For readers, none of this should be a surprise. The whole 'ESG' movement is a scam. For years, we've noted "Some EVs Are "Dirtier" Than Conventional Vehicles; New Study Finds" and 'Zero Emissions' From Electric Vehicles? Here's Why That Claim Has Zero Basis. Four years ago we said, "Electric Car-Owners Shocked: New Study Confirms EVs Considerably Worse For Climate Than Diesel Cars."

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/not-esg-friendly-new-panasonic-ev-battery-plant-kansas-be-powered-coal

Poland, Austria, & Czechia Introduce Temporary Border-Checks With Slovakia To Curb Illegal Migration

 by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Poland, Austria and Czechia will all introduce random checks at the countries’ borders with Slovakia from midnight on Wednesday following an influx of illegal immigration.

Temporary checks will be conducted along the length of the border for an initial 10-day period until Oct. 13.

They will focus specifically on road and railway border crossings, although, pedestrians and cyclists may also be asked for documentation. Anyone within the vicinity of the border may be requested to identify themselves.

“The numbers of illegal migrants to the EU are starting to grow again,” said Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala following the announcement. “We don’t take the situation lightly.”

“Citizens need a valid passport or identity card to cross the border,” the Czech Interior Ministry added.

The Czech policy would also be adopted by neighboring Austria, the country’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed.

Poland had already announced its intention to reintroduce checks on the Slovak border with the number of migrants along the Balkans migration route continuing to surge. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said last week he was “instructing Minister of Interior Mariusz Kamiński to check on buses, coaches, and cars crossing the border when it is suspected there could be illegal migrants on board.”

“In recent weeks, we detected and detained 551 illegal migrants at the border with Slovakia. This situation causes us to take decisive action,” Kaminski added.

Slovak caretaker Prime Minister Ludovit Odor acknowledged the growing issue of illegal migration in his country but insisted that the problem needs a European solution rather than individual nations restricting border access.

He claimed that the decision by the three neighboring countries had been fueled by the Polish government, which is involved in a tightly contested election campaign, with Poles heading to voting booths on Oct. 15.

“The whole thing has been triggered by Poland, where an election will soon take place, and the Czech Republic has joined in,” Odor said.

Slovakia revealed last month that the number of illegal migrants detained by its authorities this year had soared nine-fold to over 27,000. The majority of detainees comprise young men from the Middle East using the Balkan migratory route through Serbia as they seek to migrate to northwestern Europe.

The winner of Sunday’s general election in Slovakia, former Prime Minister Robert Fico, has vowed to tackle the issue more robustly by promising to reintroduce border checks with neighboring Hungary.

“It will not be a pretty picture,” Fico told journalists as he threatened to use force to dispel illegal migrants detected on Slovak territory.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/poland-austria-czechia-introduce-temporary-border-checks-slovakia-curb-illegal