Nov. 22 Quick Takes: Brandon, Jeito lead €50M round for CatalYm

CatalYm GmbH will continue to advance anti-GDF15 antibody visugromab through the Phase II GDFATHER-2 trial with a new €50 million ($51.3 million) series C round from a syndicate led by new investors Brandon Capital and Jeito Capital. The study is evaluating visugromab plus PD-1 therapy in patients with solid tumors refractory to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition. Also participating were Forbion, Novartis Venture Fund, Vesalius Biocapital III, Bayern Kapital, BioGeneration Ventures and Coparion.

After an unexpected, early data release, it isn’t clear whether the selective estrogen receptor degrader program from  Arvinas Inc. (NASDAQ:ARVN) will offer benefits over the other SERDs in development, though cross-trial comparisons have been particularly challenging for the drug class. In a data disclosure originally planned for Dec. 8 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Arvinas reported that just three of the 71 estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer patients treated in the Phase II VERITAC trial achieved a partial response. The single-arm study’s primary endpoint, clinical benefit rate, reflected a composite of partial responses and stable disease and was 37.1% and 39% for the 200 and 500 mg doses, respectively. Median PFS was 3.7 months across all treated patients and 5.7 months in the subset of patients with ESR1 mutations. Patients in the study were heavily pretreated, with a median of four prior lines. All patients received a prior CDK4/6 inhibitor, and 79% were previously treated with fulvestrant. At least nine SERDs are in clinical development...