DUBLIN – Curevac AG has entered a global alliance with Bayer AG to accelerate its efforts to bring a third, desperately needed mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine to market. The vaccine in question, CVnCoV, began a pivotal phase IIb/III trial on Dec. 14.
Pointing to his company’s work on “the next frontier in small molecules,” Ribometrix Inc. CEO Mike Solomon said the potential $1 billion-plus deal with Roche Holding AG offers evidence of big pharma’s mounting interest. Expertise in RNA folds helped Ribometrix nail down an agreement with Basel, Switzerland-based Roche’s Genentech arm that brings $25 million up front and potential milestone payments beyond $1 billion, as the pair discovers and develops RNA-targeted small-molecule therapeutics. Genentech gains exclusive rights to several predefined targets, including an exclusive global license for the development and commercialization of molecules.
LONDON – Family-owned Angelini Pharma is to buy Swiss startup Arvelle Therapeutics GmbH for $960 million, acquiring full European rights to the epilepsy drug cenobamate. The first tranche, of $610 million, will be paid following the EMA’s recommendation to approve cenobamate, which is expected at either the January or February meeting of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.
And just like that, it’s over. Bristol Myers Squibb Co. on Jan. 1 confirmed what many suspected, that FDA approval for lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) did not happen by the Dec. 31 deadline, thereby automatically terminating the contingent value rights (CVR) agreement issued as part of its acquisition of Celgene Inc.
The amount of money flowing into the biopharma industry via grants and collaborations with nonprofit and government entities is a 272% increase over last year, with efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic accounting for 84% of the total for 2020.
Thanks to Myovant Sciences GmbH’s potential $4.2 billion deal with Pfizer Inc. for recently approved Orgovyx (relugolix) in prostate cancer (PC), more physicians are going to be learning about [the compound] faster,” said chief commercial officer Adele Gulfo. “This is going to create huge demand.”
HONG KONG – With the sale of a group of noncore assets to a little-known Chinese company, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. took another step in a multibillion-dollar string of divestitures that is part of a plan to cut debt and focus on five key business areas. Takeda announced on Dec. 21 the sale of a portfolio of noncore prescription drugs marketed in China to Hasten Biopharmaceutic Co. Ltd. (China).
With record financings and now record deals in 2020, as well as a respectable value accumulated through completed mergers and acquisitions, the biopharma industry has managed to circumvent a crippling economic slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skyhawk Therapeutics Inc., one of the early leaders in developing small-molecule drugs that target RNA, closed out the year with yet another big pharma partnering deal, an alliance with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., in which it is getting $40 million up front plus up to $2.2 billion more in milestones and royalties on product sales.
Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company that has until now revolved primarily around its FDA-approved acute myeloid leukemia drug, Tibsovo (ivosidenib), is selling that drug and the rest of its oncology business to Servier Pharmaceuticals LLC in a deal valued at up to $2 billion, plus royalties. The agreement includes $1.8 billion cash up front for the portfolio and as much as $200 million in regulatory milestone payments for the investigational glioma treatment vorasidenib.
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