Fulcrum and Acceleron collaborate on pulmonary disease drug development

Fulcrum Therapeutics (Nasdaq: FULC) saw its shares rise more than 4% at $17.67 in early trading, after it revealed a lucrative deal with fellow US biotech Acceleron Pharma (Nasdaq: XLRN), which also saw its shares gain almost 2%.

The companies have entered into a collaboration and license agreement to identify small molecules designed to modulate specific pathways associated with a targeted indication within the pulmonary disease space.

“This collaboration brings together Fulcrum’s skill in identifying drug targets based on modulation of genetic pathways associated with disease and Acceleron’s deep expertise in TGF-beta superfamily signaling in an effort to generate potentially disease-modifying therapeutics,” said Habib Dable, chief executive of Acceleron Pharma. “With this agreement, along with the advancement of the Acceleron-discovered assets sotatercept - in Phase II trials in pulmonary arterial hypertension - and ACE-1334, we underscore our growing commitment to the development of novel therapies for patients with pulmonary diseases of high unmet medical need,” he noted.