BEIJING – Beigene Ltd. out-licensed its anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, tislelizumab, to Novartis AG in a deal worth up to $2.2 billion, including $650 million up front. Novartis gains rights to develop and commercialize tislelizumab in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the EU, the U.K., Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Russia and Japan. Beigene retains the rights for China and other countries. Beigene is eligible for up to $1.3 billion in regulatory milestone payments and $250 million in sales milestones as well as royalties.

Biond bags $1B-plus deal with Sanofi for ILT2 cancer therapy

Paris-based Sanofi SA brought to the table $125 million up front and more than $1 billion more in potential development, regulatory and sales-related milestone payments for Biond Biologics Ltd., of Misgav, Israel, in a deal focused on cancer prospect BND-22. The humanized IgG4 antagonist antibody targeting the Ig-like transcript 2 (ILT2) receptor is in development for the treatment of solid tumors. A member of the ILT family of immunomodulating receptors, ILT2 is an inhibitory receptor expressed on innate and adaptive immune cells that binds MHC class I molecules, including HLA-G, an immunosuppressive protein expressed by multiple tumor types.

Boehringer continues cancer investment in $1B deal with Enara

Enara Bio Ltd. could bring in more than $1.06 billion in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones from a new deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH to find lung and gastrointestinal cancer therapies. London-based Enara could also receive an undisclosed payment up front plus research and preclinical milestones and licensing fees for each tumor type explored. Enara’s platform is centered around its Dark Antigens. Boehringer has put on lot of money on the table in the past two years to develop cancer therapies. In December, the Ingelheim, Germany-based company paid $1.4 billion for antibody-drug conjugate developer NBE Therapeutics AG, of Basel, Switzerland, for about $395 million.

Tessera raises $230M series B to advance gene writing tech

Tessera Therapeutics Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based company working to "write therapeutic instructions into the genome," has raised $230 million in series B financing to back its development of potential cures and treatments for cardiovascular, oncological, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. The financing, which raised founder Flagship Pioneering's commitment to the company to $60 million, was co-led by Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Altitude Life Science Ventures and Softbank Vision Fund 2, with further support from the Qatar Investment Authority and others, it said.

Mature portfolios, increased capital, all factors in robust 2020 deals

With several deals and M&As falling within the top 20 of highest values to date, 2020 turned out to be a solid year for the biopharma industry. Expectations are positive moving into 2021, when the U.S. will welcome a new president and its citizens should reach herd immunity from COVID-19, the most disruptive and deadly infectious disease in a century. Societal lockdowns did not prevent dealmakers from coming to the table throughout the year, although massive amounts of available capital may have squashed the M&A market a bit. According to BioWorld data, there were a record 2,052 deals announced in 2020 with a combined projected value of $197 billion, another record. Completed M&As during the year reached 134 worth $173 billion.

ICER calls out the biggest U.S. price hikers

With so much ire in Congress directed toward U.S. prescription drug prices in 2019, it’s not surprising that prices remained relatively stable that year. But there are always outliers. A new report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) identified 10 top-selling drugs that had price increases more than double the rate of medical inflation that year and that accounted for the largest increases in U.S. spending on drugs. Manufacturers hiked the price of seven of those drugs with no apparent justification, ICER said. In terms of the largest unsupported increase in both list and net price, Xifaxan (rifaximin) topped the list, with an 8.4% increase in list price and a 13.3% in net price. The higher net price for the Salix Pharmaceuticals drug, approved in 2004 to treat irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, resulted in a $173 million increase in U.S. drug spending in 2019, according to the report.

Australia advances infrastructure investments in diabetes, cardiovascular, regenerative therapies

PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Center (MTPConnect) is boosting funding for the translation and commercialization of research in diabetes,  cardiovascular disease and regenerative medicine. Industry incubator MTPConnect is funding a new regenerative medicine consortium to be led by AusBiotech that will identify and establish a national regenerative medicine sector “catalyst” collaboration body. The group will address priority action areas including workforce capabilities, collaboration, funding, regulation and policy infrastructure, and Australian manufacturing capability.

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