News | Boulder Peptide Symposium

September 15-18, 2025

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Positive Results from Phase 3 Trial of Dasiglucagon in Pediatric Patients with Congenital Hyperinsulinism

Zealand Pharma Announces Positive Results from Phase 3 Trial of Dasiglucagon in Pediatric Patients with Congenital Hyperinsulinism (CHI)

  • Dasiglucagon met the primary endpoint with statistical significance - reducing the requirement for intravenous glucose by 55% compared to placebo in this pediatric patient population (ages 7 days to 12 months) when compared to placebo.
  • Dasiglucagon treatment was assessed as well-tolerated in this study and 11 out of 12 patients are continuing into the long-term safety extension study.
  • These data, together with data from a previously reported Phase 3 study in older children with CHI, are expected to form the basis of a new drug application (NDA) for dasiglucagon treatment in the management of CHI, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Submission is anticipated by end of 2022.

Copenhagen, DK and Boston, MA, U.S. May 19, 2022 – Zealand Pharma A/S (Nasdaq: ZEAL) (CVR-no. 20045078,) a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of innovative peptide-based medicines, today announced positive top-line results from its second Phase 3 clinical trial of dasiglucagon in pediatric patients with congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI). The Phase 3 program for dasiglucagon constitutes the largest clinical development program ever conducted in CHI.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM GLOBE NEWSWIRE

*Free* Virtual BPS on Development of PCSK9 Inhibitor Peptides: Aug 2nd

The August BPF Virtual Symposium will feature Chengwei Wu and Li Li, both from Merck Research Laboratories espeaking on different aspects of the development of PCSK9 inhibitor peptides. Each speaker will present for 30 minutes followed by a moderated panel discussion when attendees will have a chance to submit and ask questions.

Registration is free, and can be completed at Virtual BPS | Boulder Peptide Symposium. *Note* you must be signed in to the site inorder to sign up.

These educational e-seminars are provided free of charge by the Boulder Peptide Foundation. If your company is interested in supporting this or other educational initiatives, please email sponsorship@boulderpeptide.org.

Elicio Therapeutics Presents Design of Ongoing AMPLIFY-201 Study in Mutant KRAS-Driven Cancers

BOSTON, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elicio Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, today announced it is presenting a poster on the AMPLIFY-201 study design at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 Annual Meeting, being held in-person from June 3-7, 2022, in Chicago. AMPLIFY-201 is a Phase 1 study evaluating the safety and efficacy of ELI-002, a lymph node-targeted therapeutic cancer vaccine, as a treatment for patients with mKRAS-driven tumors who have minimal residual tumor cells following surgery to remove the tumor.

 

Full PRESS RELEASE

Mystery mechanism in small peptide shows big promise for fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria

By Olivia Trani,

One group of peptides, known as  (AMPs), serves as an innate line of defense against microbial diseases in animals, plants, and other multicellular organisms. Given their ability to quickly identify and take down a wide range of pathogens, these peptides are considered promising therapeutic candidates for treating bacterial infections where antibiotics have fallen short.

Neutron experiments led by scientists from the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have produced new details into how AMPs block bacterial infections. By studying an effective AMP called aurein 1.2, the team pieced together the molecular mechanics behind the peptide's ability to deal significant damage to bacterial cells in small quantities. Their findings, published in BBA Advances, could help pharmaceutical experts develop drugs that attack  more efficiently and effectively.

Full article available at Phys.org

Zealand Pharma’s drug for rare metabolic disease smashes phase III

After a year of slumping stock prices, Zealand Pharma is striking back, as its peptide drug improved blood sugar control in infants with the rare disease congenital hyperinsulinemia in a phase III trial. 

In late 2020, the Danish firm Zealand Pharma A/S hit a big obstacle when its peptide drug dasiglucagon failed to treat the rare condition congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) in a phase III trial. The company’s stock price dropped by 10% in reaction to the news, and only continued downwards the following year as massive volatility struck biotech stocks around the world.

To read the full article visit Labiotech.eu

FDA approves tirzepatide: A potent new drug for type 2 diabetes
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a novel first-in-class drug to treat type 2 diabetes. The drug is called tirzepatide.
  • A person has it as a once-weekly injection under the skin.
  • It has a dual effect, lowering blood sugar and supporting weight loss better than currently available drugs for this condition.
  • The most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which appear to lessen with time. There were also a few reports of severe low blood sugar in clinical trials.

Find out more at Medical News Today

Early Data for Peptide Vaccine Shows Promise in Metastatic Melanoma

At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2022 Annual Meeting, investigators reported encouraging efficacy and safety data from a phase 1/2 trial (NCT03047928) of a PD-L1/IDO peptide vaccine plus nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma....

Read the full article at Cancernetwork.com

Dr. Stephen B.H. Kent to receive the Meienhofer Award at BPS 2022

The Meienhofer Award was established in 2007 to recognize an individual with a lifetime of achievement in peptide science. The biennial award is named after Johannes Meienhofer, in honor of his transformative discoveries in solid phase peptide synthesis. Notably, Meienhofer's work demonstrated the power of medicinal chemistry in peptide pharmacology and is considered to have laid the foundation of modern synthetic peptide therapeutics.

Stephen B. H. Kent

Stephen B. H. Kent, recipient of the 2022 Meienhofer Award, received his first two university degrees in his native New Zealand and his Ph.D. (Organic Chemistry) from University of California, Berkeley. Following postdoctoral work with Bruce Merrifield, Professor Kent held faculty appointments at the Rockefeller University, the California Institute of Technology, and The Scripps Research Institute. He was Founder of Gryphon Sciences and served as its Chief Scientific Officer from 1997-2000. In 2001, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, where since June 2021 he is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Over the past several decades, Stephen Kent has profoundly shaped the field of peptide and protein chemistry. His many and diverse contributions have altered the way scientists tackle the study of these macromolecules. He pioneered the total chemical synthesis of protein molecules and showed it to be a practical and versatile method for the production of large quantities of high purity material for detailed mechanistic and structural investigations. In particular, the Kent chemical ligation concept together with the native chemical ligation reaction made proteins and enzymes accessible to direct chemical investigation via convergent, chemoselective assembly of unprotected synthetic peptide segments.

Since its introduction in 1994, native chemical ligation has become robust, reliable, and widely used. Efficient total chemical synthesis of a wide range of protein molecules, including the enzymes HIV-1 protease and human lysozyme, the protein hormone human insulin, glycoprotein mimetics of erythropoietin, together with numerous mirror image protein molecules for his pioneering studies of racemic protein crystallography, highlight the practical utility of such approaches. As these examples attest, Stephen Kent has had a gift, throughout his career, for developing new chemistries and for utilizing them to reveal the molecular basis of protein function.

His exceptional achievements in scientific research have previously been recognized by the receipt of major distinctions, including the ACS Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry (1994), the Protein Society E.T. Kaiser Award (2002), the Vincent du Vigneaud (2004) and R. Bruce Merrifield (2009) Awards of the American Peptide Society, the European Peptide Society Rudinger Medal (2010), the Japanese Peptide Society Akabori Medal (2010), the ACS Alfred Bader Award in Bioorganic Chemistry (2011), the Lorne Symposium Leach Medal (2013), the ETH Prelog Medal (2017), and the inaugural Scoffone Award of the Italian Peptide Society (2018).

Dr. Kent will receive his award Tuesday, November 8th during the Boulder Peptide Symposium. Register today!

More information on the Meienhofer Award, including a list of previous recipients, and the Boulder Peptide Symposium can be found online at www.boulderpeptide.org/meienhofer-award.

Scottish scientists say venom from sea snails could hold key to future painkillers

The cone snail’s venom contains chemicals called conotoxins, which the creature uses to paralyse its prey by blocking parts of their nervous system. Scientists believe a modified version of the poison could form the basis of future drugs capable of blocking pain receptors in the human body.

Read more at www.scotsman.com

Mytide Therapeutics Raises $7 Million Series A Round to Transform Peptide Manufacturing with Machine Learning

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mytide Therapeutics, a company transforming peptide manufacturing with predictive analytics and machine learning, has raised $7 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Alloy Therapeutics, a biotechnology ecosystem company, and was joined by Uncommon Denominator and the Mytide founding team. As part of the financing, Alloy Therapeutics CEO Errik Anderson will join Mytide’s Board of Directors. This financing will allow Mytide to scale its AI-enabled Gen2 platform to support cost-effective, scalable, and decentralized manufacturing for a wide-variety of peptide and peptide conjugate applications for therapeutic discovery and personal peptide vaccines (PPV).

READ FULL NEWS RELEASE


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