Two biotechs are making their old selves walk the plank as they take on new names in the hopes of a bounteous future.
Neurology-focused biotech Wren Therapeutics has become WaveBreak, with the new name highlighting the company's focus on “stopping the wave of neurodegeneration,” according to an April 25 press release.
Wren Therapeutics, now WaveBreak, has had a quiet few years since raising 18 million pounds sterling back in 2019 and works on small-molecule therapeutics that inhibit certain pathways across major neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s.
The biotech has already splashed out a new website that comes resplendent with a repeating passing wave on its homepage.
“Our goal is to break open a new frontier of treatment for the rapidly expanding and debilitating wave of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and ALS that have enormous unmet medical need,” said CEO Bart Henderson in the release.
Blue Water Vaccines also has officially changed its name to Blue Water Biotech as it expands outside of infectious disease work. The dropping of “Vaccines” comes after the company bought the FDA-approved benign prostatic hyperplasia drug Entadfi from Veru for up to $100 million last month.
This turned the formerly clinical-stage biotech into a commercial company now focusing its energy on that drug and moving past its purely infectious disease focus.
This also continues a trend of the past year that has seen multiple biotechs change up their name, sometimes for fishy reasons and other times for a clearer voyage ahead.
At the start of the year, PsiOxus Therapeutics become Akamis Bio in a nod to classical myth, and, in the last quarter of 2022, a slew of biopharmas got new names and rebranded, including CytRx, Respira, Adagio and Bone Therapeutics, with many coming as a result of difficult times and the need for a corporate reset.