“Aging is not only slow, but it is irreversible, and that is what most people have been suspecting,” Gero Pte Ltd.’s CEO Peter Fedichev recently told BioWorld. “[But] aging is not an inevitable part of human existence.” By setting limits to what science can do – and not do – for aging, the Palo Alto, Calif.- and Singapore-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) biotech Gero is trying to figure out and, at the same time help the industry, “see what is actionable, reversible and what may not be” to help people avoid “hitting their heads against the wall” when tackling aging and aging-related diseases.

Peel Therapeutics believes evolutionary biology holds the key to developing new therapeutics for cancer and inflammation, a relatively unique approach in the world of biotech, but one that is bearing fruit: Its lead molecule is derived from camptothecin, a compound originating from the Chinese Happy Tree that is thought to have evolved as a plant defense mechanism, and it has progressed to a phase I dose escalation study in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Angitia Biopharmaceuticals raised $46 million in a series B round extension, bringing the total raised under the series B to $170 million led by Morningside Group and will enable the company to advance its pipeline of musculoskeletal therapies.

Fledgling biotechnology company Automera has launched in Singapore with $16 million in series A funding to develop its autophagy-targeting chimera small molecules (AUTACs) platform technology. Automera co-founder and chief technology officer Loong Wang told BioWorld that he and his business partner, Taiyang Zhang, decided to move into the biotechnology space in 2021.

Arbele Ltd. founder and CEO John Luk identified and patented cadherin-17 as a therapeutic cancer target, and the company was founded to develop immunotherapies for gastrointestinal cancers, which are prevalent in Asia Pacific.

Emerging from stealth mode, new immuno-oncology company Dotbio Pte. Ltd. closed an oversubscribed $5.6 million pre-series A round to accelerate development of its multifunctional and intracellular antibody therapies.

Biocity Biopharmaceutics Co. Ltd. is advancing its pipeline of differentiated, modality-independent therapeutics for oncology that include small molecules, monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, as well as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The Wuxi, China-headquartered company is focused on first-in-class molecules for different modalities that can be combined with other treatments, Biocity Co-founder and Executive Vice President Ivy Wang told BioWorld.

South Korean biopharma Connext Co. Ltd. is set on outdoing standard-of-care therapies for Dupuytren’s contracture. The Daegu-headquartered Connext recently secured U.S. FDA IND approval for a phase I/II trial on its recombinant collagenase clostridium histolyticum, called CNT-201, inching closer to its goal of providing an affordable but high-quality therapeutic option for patients with the rare, progressive connective tissue disorder.

Viage Therapeutics Inc. – formerly Digestome Therapeutics Inc. – on July 26 unveiled positive data from its phase I study on DGX-001 for mild cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s (PD). The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study demonstrated changes in brain activity according to quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) measurements in 68 healthy volunteers dosed with single ascending and multiple ascending doses.