HONG KONG – Xi’an, China-based Yufan Biotechnologies Co. Ltd. has partnered with Pittsburgh-based Abound Bio Inc. to discover and develop antibodies directing CAR T cells against cancer targets.
Michael Engsig, CEO of Oslo, Norway-based Vaccibody AS, said the company’s deal with Roche Holding AG lets his firm “fully set in motion” the plan to explore infectious diseases as well as cancer, and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) Agnete Fredriksen pointed out that “an exceptional cross-functional team” has been put in place to get the job done. Vaccibody signed the new contract with Basel, Switzerland-based Roche’s Genentech arm to develop and sell DNA-based individualized neoantigen vaccines for cancers. The tie-up brings as much as $715 million for Vaccibody.
In a valuable new deal for Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Pfizer Inc. is taking a 9.9% stake in the company and licensing exclusive rights to commercialize its lead asset, the anti-PD-L1 antibody sugemalimab, in mainland China.
Early stage investment strategies and dealmaking in the age of COVID-19 became topics during the Biopharm America meeting, itself held virtually this year because of the pandemic. Kevin Johnson, partner and co-founder of European life sciences backer Medicxi, hailed an “unprecedented upswing” on the financial front. “There is no winter,” he said. “It’s amazing.”
Following days of speculation, Illumina Inc. said today it will acquire liquid biopsy startup Grail Inc. for $8 billion in cash and stock, bringing back into the fold a company it spun out in 2016. The deal gives Illumina a major stake in the race the race to develop a less-invasive way to diagnose cancer. Since spinning out, Grail has raised nearly $2 billion from big-name investors with promises of a blood test for early cancer detection and is hoping to introduce its liquid biopsy as a laboratory-developed test (LTD) as early as next year.
DUBLIN – Roche Holding AG is taking a second shot on the NLRP3 inflammasome by acquiring Dublin-based Inflazome Ltd. for €380 million (US$447.8 million) up front plus undisclosed milestones linked to the progress of its two clinical-stage candidates inzomelid and somalix. In terms of cash on the table, the deal is the largest yet for a portfolio of drug candidates that acts on the NLRP3 inflammasome, and it represents a profitable exit for Inflazome’s investors, who put €55 million into the company over two funding rounds, in 2016 and in 2018.
Shares of Marseilles, France-based Innate Pharma SA took a hit recently after making known the adjustment of its lucrative deal with Astrazeneca plc for monalizumab in recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), but opinions are divided on what it means.
While its mRNA COVID-19 vaccination effort gets the most attention these days, Moderna Inc. is also moving in other directions as the company will lead mRNA discovery programs drawn from its early stage pipeline in new collaborations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Italy’s Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA. These two deals highlight the “huge opportunity for mRNA beyond SARS-CoV-2 and vaccines,” Piper Sandler analysts wrote Sept. 16.
HONG KONG – Osaka-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has divested a portfolio of non-core prescription pharmaceuticals products to Greifswald, Germany-based Cheplapharm Arzneimittel GmbH as part of an ongoing program intended to optimize and simplify its portfolio.
In the company’s largest acquisition and potentially the fifth biggest biotech M&A ever, Gilead Sciences Inc. will acquire Immunomedics Inc. for $21 billion in a move that substantially transforms Gilead’s oncology portfolio.
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