Biopharma companies have announced additional layoffs and restructurings in the past few weeks, after more than 7,800 job cuts were reported by BioWorld this year through late April. Through mid-May, total layoffs in the biopharma sector have increased to 9,848.
In what represents just the third PCT filing to have been published in the name of Zurich, Switzerland-based Siva Health AG, protection is sought for a computer-implemented method of classifying an individual suffering from chronic cough.
Seven years after embarking on in vivo therapeutic development using CRISPR/Cas gene-editing technology with Intellia Therapeutics Inc., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is bringing another company into the collaborative fold. Regeneron will pay Mammoth Biosciences Inc. $100 million, including $95 million as an equity investment, and an up-front payment. Mammoth also could bring in up to $370 million for each target in milestones along with royalties on net sales from products created through the collaboration.
Aignostics GmbH has embarked on raising a €20-€30 million (US$21.74-$32.61 million) series B round after validating its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven precision oncology platform by signing a co-development deal with Bayer AG. This is the first pharma partnership for the Berlin, Germany-based company. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Aignostics will receive an up-front payment and is eligible to receive success-based milestone payments and royalties on any commercialized therapies that result from the collaboration.
Trinity Biotech plc. paid $12.5 million to acquire Waveform Technologies Inc.’s biosensor and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) assets. It also formed a partnership with Bayer AG to launch a CGM biosensor in China and India. These moves are part of Trinity’s transformation strategy to become a leading player in wearable biosensor technology.
Doubling efforts to thaw the global biotech capital freeze, the U.S. branch of Shanghai-based Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. will ramp up investment into U.S. clinical-stage assets through a new joint investment vehicle with American health care advisory firm Treehill Partners.
Bayer AG’s asundexian, considered one of the next generation class of anticoagulants and a potential blockbuster, has failed a phase III clinical trial in atrial fibrillation. The factor XIa inhibitor is one of three with a similar mechanism of action in late stage development by big companies.
Bayer AG said it will voluntarily withdraw Aliqopa (copanlisib) from the U.S. market after a confirmatory trial required by the FDA failed to meet the primary endpoint of progression-free survival vs. standard immunochemotherapy in patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma. It marks the latest stumble for PI3K-targeting drugs in the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma space.
The artificial intelligence company Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer AG have upped the ante on their 2020 collaboration deal to include precision oncology, with the possibility of more than $1 billion in potential milestone payments for Recursion.
