Good day. The Trump administration, which has been skeptical of vaccines that prevent infections, is going all in on a new initiative to deploy novel vaccines against cancer.

The Department of Health and Human Services, through the National Cancer Institute, has initiated a potential $200 million public-private partnership to fund clinical trials of vaccines that spark an immune attack on tumors. These vaccines may ward off cancer in patients who have been treated for the disease, but are at high risk for recurrence.

Dr. Anthony Letai, who became NCI director in September, said he wants to finance larger trials of vaccines that in smaller studies have shown potential to keep aggressive cancers at bay.

“What’s exciting about this is that there are early signals from clinical trials that we can actually have an impact even in some very difficult settings where we have very little to offer patients,” he said.

Instead of protecting against infection, these vaccines train the immune system to fight tumors. And unlike flu or Covid-19 shots, which are injected into healthy people, these vaccines would be used in patients who have been treated for cancer.

Read the full story here.

And now on to the news...

Refinery finds new life. A biotech startup backed by Bill Gates is staking its pharmaceutical future on the site of one of the worst oil refinery accidents in recent memory.

• TerraPower Isotopes, which produces ingredients for advanced cancer treatments, is preparing to anchor the next phase of redevelopment on the site of the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery, less than 3 miles from downtown Philadelphia.
   
• The startup, a subsidiary of Gates-founded TerraPower, has leased roughly 250,000 square feet at the site and committed to investing about $450 million to build a manufacturing facility there, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• The site defined Philadelphia’s industrial heft for more than a century before a catastrophic explosion and fire in 2019 caused an estimated $750 million loss, resulting in the bankruptcy of the East Coast’s largest oil refinery. 

AstraZeneca said it received European Union approval for its Imfinzi drug as a treatment for early-stage gastric and gastroesophageal cancers, expanding the label of one of its top-selling oncology medicines. The U.K. drugmaker said the approval from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, followed a favorable opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use and was based on positive results from a late-stage clinical trial. The approval was for Imfinzi in combination with standard-of-care chemotherapy. This marks the company’s third approval in Europe as a perioperative therapy—treatments given before, during and after surgery—for an Imfinzi-based regimen, the executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s oncology hematology business unit, Dave Fredrickson, said. AstraZeneca had previously received similar approvals for Imfinzi for treating lung and bladder cancers.

People

Biotechnology company Infinity Bio said it has appointed Brian McKelligon as its chief executive. McKelligon will guide the company's next phase of growth, global expansion and commercial acceleration of its MIPSA technology, Infinity said. 

Crossbow Therapeutics said it closed a $77 million Series B round co-led by Taiho Ventures and Arkin Bio Capital to advance clinical development of its T-Bolt platform, a new class of TCR-mimetic antibodies designed to reach novel intracellular targets presented on tumor cells.

Excalipoint Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing next-generation T-cell engager therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases, said it raised $68.7 million in seed financing to advance its technology platforms and pipeline of T-cell engager programs.

Condor Software, a financial intelligence platform for life sciences, said it closed a $24 million Series A round led by Insight Partners. Condor said has raised a total of $36 million in funding.

Rivia, a Zurich-based startup developing an AI-powered clinical trial data engine, has raised a $15 million Series A round led by Earlybird, with participation from Defiant, Speedinvest, Amino Collective and Nina Capital.

• Eating a Lot of Ultraprocessed Food Raises the Risk of Heart Attacks, Strokes
   
• She Hoped Ketamine Would Rewire Her Brain. She Didn’t Live to See It Work.
   
• Would You Spend $1,000 a Month on Supplements?
   
• Judge Blocks New Childhood Vaccine Recommendations
   
• When Miracle Weight-Loss Drugs Lose Their Edge
   
• Millions of Americans Are Going Uninsured Following Expiration of ACA Subsidies

• How a Texas couple is getting rich off out-of-network medical bills (STAT)
   
• Confidential report calls for sweeping changes to track Covid vaccine harms (New York Times)
   
• RBC: Revolution, Xenon, Arrowhead among top takeover targets (BioPharma Dive)
   
• Psychiatrists’ use of biomarkers could open a new window into mental-health diagnoses (KFF Health News)

This newsletter was compiled by Brian Gormley. 

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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