Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd. could receive an aggregate $1.1 billion from Coherus Biosciences Inc. for the rights to develop and commercialize Junshi’s anti-PD-1 antibody toripalimab in the U.S. and Canada. The deal is powered by Coherus’ core biosimilar business and is designed to steer the company into the business of immuno-oncology.
In a move that will enable both a broadening of its portfolio and a strengthening of its IP position, Neubase Therapeutics Inc. has acquired technology from Vera Therapeutics Inc. for creating peptide-nucleic acid scaffolds. The deal will extend the ability of Neubase's Patrol platform, a tool for addressing the causal mechanism of genetic disease, to directly modulate the human genome to resolve both rare and common diseases, including cancers, the company said.
Innate Pharma SA’s unexpected return to partner Astrazeneca plc all rights, in the U.S. and EU, to Lumoxiti (moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk) for hairy cell leukemia likely triggered unease in at least some investors.
HONG KONG – Osaka, Japan-based Shionogi & Co. Ltd. has inked a license agreement with Bioage Labs Inc. that sets the stage for the Richmond, Calif.-based startup to test asapiprant, originally developed for allergic rhinitis, for the treatment of COVID-19 and age-related declines in immune function.
Little more than half-a-year after closing its $78 million series A financing, Artiva Biotherapeutics Inc. has inked a new global licensing deal with Merck & Co. Inc. to develop up to three natural killer (NK) cell therapies engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) against tumor-associated antigens of its choosing. Merck will pay Artiva $30 million up front for two initial programs, plus $15 million more should it opt into the third. Each program carries $612 million in potential development and commercial milestone payments. With unfettered success, total deal value could hit $1.88 billion, plus royalties.
HONG KONG – Irvine, Calif.-based Trigr Therapeutics Inc. has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Shanghai-based Elpiscience Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., known as Kewang in China. The two companies will develop and commercialize TR-009 in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
DUBLIN – Mina Therapeutics Ltd. is extending its small activating RNA (saRNA) technology into the central nervous system through a partnership with Les Laboratoires Servier SAS that could be worth as much as €220 million (US$266.5 million) in up-front and milestone payments.
DUBLIN – Merus NV is banking $40 million up front, plus an equity investment of $20 million, under a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Co.’s Loxo Oncology arm to develop up to three CD3-directed bispecific T-cell engager antibodies. Each program also has up to $540 million attached in development and commercialization milestones, taking the total potential value of the deal to $1.68 billion. Merus would also receive tiered royalties on any product sales, ranging, in percentage terms, from mid-single-digits to low-double-digits.
Evoq Therapeutics LLC, a Michigan-based company developing a new technology for treating autoimmune disease, has signed a new license and collaboration agreement giving Amgen Inc. exclusive rights to selected programs in the area, undisclosed in number and indication. Valued at more than $240 million in up-front and milestone payments, the deal also includes potential royalties on sales of resulting therapies, Evoq said.
KSQ Therapeutics Inc.’s chief scientific officer, Frank Stegmeier, said that the CRISPRomics technology that drew Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to the table allows, “for the first time, genome-scale functional screening [in vivo as well as in vitro] across multiple disease settings. It really takes the guessing game out of your drug target selection.” Working with “an encyclopedia of gene function,” he said, KSQ aims to identify prospects that can have monotherapy activity in PD-1-refractory solid tumors.
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