For start-ups developing novel and risky medicines to treat glioblastoma, a rare, invasive form of brain cancer, the Pfizer/Avant deal was a watershed moment: It signaled the vigorous interest of a pharmaceutical behemoth in a disease where patients number in just the tens of thousands. The positive effects are likely to be felt in executive suites of biotechs developing therapeutics for this grievous disease.

MedGenesis Therapeutix is developing convection-enhanced delivery, a technique that involves infusion under positive pressure of a drug to specific locations of the brain. The leading indication for its CED technology is glioblastoma.

SanoGene Therapeutics thinks it will be able to enhance outcomes for glioblastoma patients by following the unavoidable brain surgery with an injection of targeted plasmids containing short sequences of RNA.