A Superagonist, A Novel Anti-Obesity Agent from a Zebrafish Screen, and More News Highlights From January 2024

Drug Hunter has sifted through news articles, press releases, financial disclosures, SEC filings, and more to bring you a roundup of 2023’s biggest mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the drug discovery world. Following our open-access industry overview, in the final installment of this four-part series we bring you the biologics-focused deals opening checkbooks in 2023.

To help you quickly scan the patent literature, we’ve distilled down thousands of new documents into a searchable table of over 200 selected patents focused on key areas in drug discovery, all published in May 2024. This resource is enriched with detailed highlights on selected molecules targeting high-interest areas such as STING antagonists, WIZ degraders, RNA degraders, and macrocyclic amine-based OX2R modulators.

Drug Hunter has sifted through news articles, press releases, financial disclosures, SEC filings, and more to bring you a roundup of 2023’s biggest mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the drug discovery world. Following our open-access industry overview, in part 2 of this 4-part series we bring you the small molecule-focused deals, ranked 11-20 by value. Covering a range of targets and modalities, this article gives Drug Hunter members in-depth background and analysis of the hottest science opening checkbooks in 2023.

Genentech’s GDC-6599 is the first oral TRP Ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) antagonist to reach Ph. IIa (NCT05660850) for chronic cough after preclinical studies and a Ph. I trial showed it was well-tolerated, in contrast to prior molecules. The transient receptor potential (TRP) family of ion channels has been the subject of intensive drug discovery efforts due to their critical role in the development and progression of pain, itch, and respiratory conditions.

To select May’s Molecules of the Month, our team evaluated hundreds of molecules from thousands of papers, press releases, conference presentations, and other materials. Check out our curated roundup of more than 60 additional molecules below that caught our interest from May, including highlights of some of our favorites, and perspectives on why these are molecules to watch.