Novo submits sickle cell drug; Flagship, Gates Foundation deepen ties

An article from News roundup Novo submits sickle cell drug; Flagship, Gates Foundation deepen ties Novo views the medicine, acquired in a billion-dollar deal, as a future blockbuster. Meanwhile, a pair of startups forged an RNA editing pact and Astellas lined up two new trials in pancreatic cancer. Published Nov.

13, 2026 By BioPharma Dive staff Share Copy link Email LinkedIn X/Twitter Facebook Print License Add us on Google Today, a brief rundown of news involving Novo and Flagship Pioneering, as well as updates from Ascidian Therapeutics, Immuneering and Addex Therapeutics that you may have missed. Novo on Friday filed approval applications in the U.S. and Europe for a sickle cell disease treatment the Danish drugmaker acquired in a $1 billion deal.

Novo picked up the drug, etavopivat, in a 2022 buyout of Forma Therapeutics that was part of a strategy to bet more heavily on rare disease research. Etavopivat has since shown an ability in testing to reduce the bouts of pain associated with the condition by 27% over the course of a year. In a recent earnings presentation, Novo said it aims to position etavopivat as a "new standard of care" for sickle cell and sees the therapy — which is in mid-stage testing for another blood condition called thalassemia — as a future blockbuster.

— Ben Fidler Biotechnology company creator Flagship Pioneering and the Gates Foundation will work together to develop “health and agricultural solutions” for underserved groups in low- and middle-income countries, according to a Thursday announcement. The partners have committed $25 million to the deal over five years and, through it, plan to establish a new Flagship initiative known as “Pioneering Global Health & Development.” That initiative will sift through Flagship’s startup portfolio to identify programs for women’s health, agriculture and global health that could warrant additional funding. The Gates Foundation has already invested in three Flagship companies.

The new deal “will create a broader and more systematic model” for spotting more of these types of opportunities, they said. — Delilah Alvarado Ascidian Therapeutics and Exegenesis Bio will combine their respective technologies in a partnership meant to yield RNA editing treatments that can be sent into multiple different tissue types. The two companies didn't disclose financial terms or the specific diseases the resulting programs might target.

But they intend to pair Ascidian’s RNA “exon” editing capabilities with Exegenesis’ proprietary “capsids,” or viral shells used to shepherd genetic medicines into cells. The companies’ goal is to end up with delivery approaches that are specifically tailored to individual programs. — Delilah Alvarado Immuneering and Astellas Pharma have struck a deal to test their drugs alongside one another in a pair of clinical trials in pancreatic cancer, the companies said Thursday.

One study in the first-line setting will evaluate a combination of chemotherapy, Immuneering’s experimental cancer drug, atebimetinib, and an Astellas treatment aimed at the cancer protein Claudin 18.2. The other trial, in previously treated patients, involves only atebimetinib and a Claudin 18.2-targeting agent. Immuneering’s drug blocks the proteins MEK1 and MEK2.

It’s not handing off any ownership rights to Astellas in the deal. — Delilah Alvarado Brain drug developer Addex Therapeutics said Thursday its spin-out company Neurosterix secured $105 million in a Series B financing round that’ll mainly support mid-stage testing of an experimental candidate for schizophrenia. Dubbed NTX-253, Neurosterix’s prospect is directed at the M4 muscarinic receptor, a protein that slows the release of chemicals in the brain.

That receptor is one of the targets of Cobenfy, a Bristol Myers Squibb medicine approved to treat schizophrenia. Addex said Neurosterix’s drug is “highly selective,” however. It didn’t disclose which firms provided the funding, only revealing that the round was led by a “syndicate of leading life science investors.” — Delilah Alvarado Add us on Google Share Copy link Email LinkedIn X/Twitter Facebook Print License Filed Under: Biotech