Three years after litigation started over technology used in Comirnaty, the mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, Biontech SE is acquiring its adversary, Curevac NV, through an all-stock transaction valued at about $1.25 billion. The amount is lower than the $3 billion in backpay Curevac could win through the lawsuit if a low mid-single-digit royalty were awarded, Evercore ISI analysts Jon Miller and Umer Raffat said. But the legal uncertainty has weighed heavily on the company, which shed 30% of its workforce last July and sold off rights to two of its infectious disease vaccines. Under the merger agreement expected to close later this year, each share of Curevac will be exchanged for about $5.46 in Biontech American depositary shares, a 55% premium to the company’s three-month volume weighted average price as of June 11. Curevac’s shares (NASDAQ:CVAC) climbed 37.7%, or $1.54, to $5.61 in early trading June 12, while Biontech’s (NASDAQ:BNTX) remained level at $105.07, down 39 cents.

FDA says yes to Nuvation’s Ibtrozi for ROS1 NSCLC

Nuvation Bio Inc. gained U.S. FDA approval for Ibtrozi (taletrectinib) for adults with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non-small-cell lung cancer. The drug is a highly selective, next-generation oral ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has turned up high response rates with durable benefit and intracranial activity and is generally well-tolerated, Nuvation noted. Shares (NASDAQ:NUVB) were trading at $2.08, down 12 cents.

Another BiTE in autoimmune: Cullinan deals $712M for Genrix asset

Cullinan Therapeutics Inc. swept up ex-China rights to a multiple myeloma-targeting BCMAxCD3 bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) velinotamig from Chongqing Genrix Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. via a potential $712 million deal. The plan is to repurpose the cancer drug to autoimmune disease. Velinotamig will have to prove both safety and efficacy in B-cell depletion in the autoimmune space onwards, but the therapy could be “transformational, even without 100% response rates,” according to Cullinan CEO Nadim Ahmed.

New ACIP members to review data for current vaccine schedules

And then there were eight. Members of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), that is. Two days after dismissing the 17 members of the committee, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy named eight new members to the panel. Eight is the minimum required for a quorum, which will be necessary for the June 25-27 meeting. In announcing the new members, Kennedy said they each have “committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations. The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well.”

Startup Elkedonia raises €11M to advance neuroplastogen in depression

Newco Elkedonia SAS has raised €11 million (US$12.7 million) in a seed round, which will fund it to take a potentially first-in-class ELK-1 inhibitor into the clinic in the treatment of refractory depression. ELK-1 plays a pivotal role in neuroplasticity and in reward circuits in the brain, which when disrupted can lead to depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. Elkedonia said the data support ELK-1 inhibition as a route to restoring brain plasticity without any dependency, hallucinations or other side effects of existing neuroplastogens that are approved for treating depression.

23andme genetic privacy concerns garner Congressional scrutiny

The bankruptcy of genetic testing service 23andme Holding Corp. prompted a reaction from many quarters, but a June 11 Senate hearing highlighted an interest in federal privacy legislation that would be directed toward genetic privacy as well as comprehensive and preemptive federal privacy legislation.

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