Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has entered into a license agreement with Ligachem Biosciences Inc. for LCB-97, a preclinical stage antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for solid tumors.

In the year’s fourth-largest deal, Prime Medicine Inc. will collaborate with Bristol Myers Squibb Co. in a research collaboration and license agreement totaling $3.61 billion. The two companies plan to develop reagents for ex vivo T-cell therapies. While the programs and targets have yet to be disclosed, BMS is expanding its CAR T development, begun more than five years ago, with this deal.

Spima Therapeutics SAS has announced its launch with a focus on developing innovative peptide-based immunotherapies for difficult-to-reach targets, especially protein-protein interactions.

Prime Medicine Inc. has announced its plans to strategically focus its efforts on a set of high value programs as it advances its pipeline of next-generation gene editing therapies.

Novartis AG is enlisting the help of Generate:Biomedicines Inc. and its artificial intelligence platform to generate drugs for multiple undisclosed targets. The number of targets and therapeutic areas also weren’t disclosed. Novartis will pick the targets, although the targets Generate has been working on are off limits. Generate will be responsible for creating the lead candidate, at which point Novartis will take over development.

Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners (DDP) Inc. has entered into a strategic research and collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly & Co. for multiple drug discovery programs.

The dark matter of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is shades brighter, after the signing of two major deals between biotech pioneers and big pharma in the past week. Haya Therapeutics SA announced Sept. 4 that it has sealed a multiyear agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. to apply its lncRNA platform technology to identify targets in obesity and related metabolic disorders.

Adcendo ApS and Multitude Therapeutics Inc. have signed a licensing agreement for the development of a highly differentiated antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting tissue factor, designated ADCE-T02.