> Kite Pharma, which in a tight race with Novartis to gain U.S. approval for the first-ever CAR-T med later this year, said it has submitted an IND app with the FDA for a Phase 1, first-in-human trial of KITE-585, another of its CAR-T therapies, to target B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Release
> RNAi company RXi Pharmaceuticals said it has picked two self-delivering RNAi (sd-rxRNA) compounds from its immuno-oncology pipeline for preclinical development. The compounds, RXI-762 and RXI-804, suppress the expression of immune checkpoint proteins PD-1 and TIGIT. Statement
> Mitobridge says it has hit a “key milestone” with the start of the first-in-human Phase 1 test of its PPAR-delta modulator, MA-0211 in healthy volunteers, which will provide the basis for future studies in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy patients. Release