Gilead’s remdesivir vs. 2019-nCov in cells; plus Syndax, Syntrix and Max Planck

Chinese team provides data for Gilead’s remdesivir against 2019-nCoV
A group from the Chinese Academy of Science’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Beijing Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology showed that remdesivir reduced 2019-nCoV infection of monkey kidney cells with an EC₅₀ of 0.77 μM and reported an EC₉₀ value or 1.76 μM. Published Tuesday in a Cell Research letter, the group also showed the Ebola candidate, a nucleotide analog from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), blocked the coronavirus from infecting human liver cells at concentrations as low as 0.21 μM. In a statement, the institutes said they applied to patent the use of remdesivir to treat 2019-nCoV; Gilead has a patent application pending in China for its use against coronavirus (see “O’Day on Remdesivir”).

Syndax’s SNDX-5613 to prevent NPM1-mutant leukemia
A Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SNDX) team showed in a January Science article that a structural analog of SNDX-5613 reduced tumor burden when administered after disease onset and increased survival when delivered before tumor onset in mouse models of NPM1-mutant acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). The study builds on data for the inhibitor of the menin-MLL1 interaction the team described in December in Cancer Cell. SNDX-5613 is in Phase I testing for MLL1-rearranged leukemias and NPM1-mutant AML...