On April 3, 2025 Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCKT), a fully integrated, late-stage biotechnology company advancing a sustainable pipeline of genetic therapies for rare disorders with high unmet need, reported that management will participate in the 24th Annual Needham Virtual Healthcare Conference taking place on April 8, 2025 (Press release, Rocket Pharmaceuticals, APR 3, 2025, View Source [SID1234651797]). Gaurav Shah, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, will take part in a fireside chat at 8:45 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 8.

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A webcast of the fireside chat will be available here and on the Investors section of the Company’s website. An archived replay of the webcast will be available for approximately 30 days following the event.

On April 3. 2025 BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. (the "Company") reported to have entered into an Equity Distribution Agreement (the "Equity Distribution Agreement") with Canaccord Genuity LLC ("Canaccord") to sell shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the "Common Stock"), from time to time, through an "at the market" equity offering program under which Canaccord will act as sales agent (Filing, 8-K, BioXcel Therapeutics, APR 3, 2025, View Source [SID1234651782]).

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Subject to the terms and conditions of the Equity Distribution Agreement, Canaccord may sell the shares by methods deemed to be an "at the market offering" as defined in Rule 415 promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, including sales made through The Nasdaq Capital Market or on any other existing trading market for the Common Stock. Under the Equity Distribution Agreement, Canaccord will use commercially reasonable efforts to sell the Common Stock from time to time and the Company will set the parameters for the sale of shares, including the number of shares to be issued, the time period during which sales are requested to be made, limitations on the number of shares that may be sold in any one trading day and any minimum price below which sales may not be made. The Company will pay Canaccord a commission of up to 3.0% of the gross proceeds of any Common Stock sold through Canaccord under the Equity Distribution Agreement, and has provided Canaccord with customary indemnification rights. The Company also will reimburse Canaccord for certain specified expenses in connection with entering into the Equity Distribution Agreement.

Any sales of shares under the Equity Distribution Agreement will be made pursuant to the Company’s shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-275261) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") on November 2, 2023 and declared effective on November 13, 2023. The Company filed a prospectus supplement with the Commission on April 3, 2025 in connection with the offer and sale of up to $8,135,000 of shares pursuant to the Equity Distribution Agreement.

The foregoing description of the material terms of the Equity Distribution Agreement is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full agreement, a copy of which is filed as Exhibit 1.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

Honigman LLP, counsel to the Company, has issued an opinion regarding the validity of the shares of Common Stock to be issued and sold pursuant to the Equity Distribution Agreement. A copy of the opinion is filed as Exhibit 5.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K.

This Current Report on Form 8-K shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy the securities discussed herein, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.

On April 3, 2025 Blackstone Life Sciences and Anthos Therapeutics, Inc., a transformative, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cardiometabolic diseases, reported that Novartis has completed its acquisition of Anthos Therapeutics in a transaction valued at up to $3.1 billion (Press release, Novartis, APR 3, 2025, View Source [SID1234651798]).

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Anthos was founded by Blackstone Life Sciences and Novartis in 2019 with the exclusive global rights from Novartis to develop, manufacture, and commercialize abelacimab, a novel Factor XI inhibitor that originated at Novartis. Abelacimab is currently in Phase 3 clinical development for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation (LILAC-TIMI 76), in addition to two phase 3 studies in patients with cancer-associated thrombosis (ASTER and MAGNOLIA). Data from these trials are expected in the second half of 2026.

Transaction Details

Anthos shareholders will receive up to $3.1 billion in total deal value, including an upfront payment of $925 million, and payments in the event certain regulatory and commercial milestones are achieved.

Advisors

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as the lead financial advisor to Anthos. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC also served as a financial advisor, and Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal advisor to Anthos.

On April 3, 2025 Circio Holding ASA (OSE: CRNA), a biotechnology company developing powerful circular RNA technology for next generation nucleic acid medicine, and Entos Pharmaceuticals U.K. Ltd. (Entos), a clinical-stage genetic medicines company, reported the initiation of a research collaboration (Press release, Circio, APR 3, 2025, View Source [SID1234651783]). The collaboration will involve joint development and in vivo delivery testing of Circio’s optimized circular RNA expression vectors (circVec) using the Entos proprietary Fusogenix PLV nucleic acid delivery technology.

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Under the collaboration, Entos will develop and validate PLV-formulations of Circio´s circVec DNA vectors and perform technical testing in vivo. Initial data from the collaboration is expected in the next three to six months. If successful, the results will create the foundation for a continued collaboration to develop and test future circVec-PLV therapeutic candidates with potential applications in genetic medicine, chronic disease, and vaccines.

Financial details were not disclosed.

"Entos has demonstrated efficient and safe delivery of synthetic non-viral DNA vectors, both in mouse models, primates and clinical trials," said Dr. Thomas Hansen, CTO of Circio. "The unique PLV chemistry enables direct fusion with the cell membrane and bypasses the endosomal uptake pathway. This feature has been shown to enhance delivery efficiency and reduce toxicity of DNA vectors. It is therefore a logical step for Circio to enter this research collaboration with Entos to explore the potential synergy of combining our complementary expression and delivery technologies. If successful, this partnership will aim to provide a joint platform for generating future therapeutic candidates in several disease areas of high unmet medical need."

"Entos is currently partnering with a number of key international genetic medicine companies for the expansion of the use of our Fusogenix PLV drug delivery system to enable the delivery of nucleic acid to target cells through direct fusion," said Jason Ding, CBO of Entos Pharmaceuticals. "We have selected to partner with Circio given their unique and impressive approach to circular RNA vector expression technologies for next generation nucleic acid medicine. This collaboration will seek to use Fusogenix PLV to enhance Circio’s circVec DNA vector delivery efficiency and reduce toxicity compared to LNP-formulations. This could have a considerable impact in novel applications in genetic medicine, chronic disease and vaccines."

On April 3, 2025 BlossomHill Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the design and development of small molecule medicines for treating cancer and autoimmune diseases, reported that an abstract describing the design and discovery of the company’s novel, macrocyclic, reversible, mutant-selective OMNI-EGFR inhibitor, BH-30643, was accepted for a poster presentation at the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL on April 29, 2025 (Press release, BlossomHill Therapeutics, APR 3, 2025, View Source [SID1234651799]).

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"At BlossomHill, we set out to reimagine what an EGFR inhibitor could achieve as a single agent precision medicine," said Dr. Jean Cui, President and Chief Executive Officer of BlossomHill Therapeutics. "Using an intentional design approach, we targeted structural features shared across activating EGFR mutations, creating an opportunity to potently and selectively target a broad spectrum of EGFR positive lung cancers."

"The growing diversity of treatments for different subgroups of EGFR mutations has added complexity – it can be hard for a doctor or patient to know which is the right treatment," said Dr. Geoff Oxnard, Chief Medical Officer of BlossomHill Therapeutics. "We envision that a super-potent EGFR kinase inhibitor could help achieve in this disease the kinds of durable responses we are seeing with next-generation ALK and ROS1 targeted therapies."

The poster title and session information are provided below. Full abstract details, including title and text, are currently available via the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) online itinerary planner.

Poster title: Design and discovery of BH-30643: A novel, reversible, mutant-selective macrocyclic EGFR inhibitor invulnerable to common resistance mutations
Abstract number: 5608
Session Title: Kinase and Phosphatase Inhibitors 3, Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics
Session Date/Time: Tuesday, April 29, 2025, 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CT
Presenting Author: Jean Cui, Ph.D., Scientific Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, BlossomHill Therapeutics
A copy of the poster will be available on the BlossomHill website at the beginning of the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) poster presentation.

About BH-30643

BH-30643 is a novel, macrocyclic, reversible, mutant-selective OMNI-EGFR inhibitor for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) bearing EGFR or HER2 mutations. In preclinical studies, BH-30643 demonstrated potent antitumor activity spanning classical EGFR mutations (exon 19 deletions, L858R), atypical EGFR mutations (G719X, L861Q, S768I, etc.), and exon 20 insertions, maintaining potency in the presence of known resistance mutations. BH-30643 is currently being evaluated in the Phase 1/2 global SOLARA study (NCT06706076), which includes dose escalation followed by expansion cohorts to further evaluate BH-30643 across a range of EGFR and HER2 mutations.