iCell Gene Therapeutics Granted Orphan Drug Designation

iCell Gene Therapeutics, a CFB client company, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation for its chimeric antigen receptor engineered T-cells directed against the target protein CD4 (CD4CAR) for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). The Orphan Drug Designation program provides orphan status, and associated development incentives, to drugs and biologics intended for the safe and effective treatment, diagnosis or prevention of rare diseases or disorders that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. Read more about the designation and company here.

iCell

Depymed Received $100k from Accelerate Long Island & LIETF

DepYmed, a joint venture of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and New York City-based biotech Ohr Pharmaceutical led by Andreas Grill, has received $100,000 from Accelerate Long Island and the Long Island Emerging Technologies Fund. Andreas Grill has served as a BioEntrepreneur-in-Residence for the center for Biotechnology and DepYmed is developing a new drug called Trodusquemine that it hopes will one day treat HER2-positive breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease. Read more about the company and the investment from Accelerate and LIETF here.