Arqule Inc. CEO Paolo Pucci said the firm was “limited in what we can comment [on] for the time being” in connection with Merck & Co. Inc.’s deal to pay about $2.7 billion in cash for the company. “There is no better model for bringing a drug faster into the hands of patients and caregivers than the example of Keytruda. I will leave it at that.” Merck’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab), a human PD-1-blocking antibody was first approved in September 2014 for advanced melanoma. The label has been widely expanded since.
LONDON – Janssen Biotech Inc. is buying Xbiotech Inc.’s interleukin-1a (IL-1a) inhibitor bermekimab for $750 million up front and will pay a further $600 million in potential milestones as the product advances in development for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and the chronic immune-mediated skin disease, hidradenitis suppurativa (HS).
LONDON – GE Healthcare Life Sciences is bringing its heft to 3D bioprinting in an agreement with Advanced Solutions Life Science Inc. (ASLS), in which the partners aim to automate the production of quality-assured, vascularized tissues, for bone, soft tissue and organ replacements.
DUBLIN – Sanofi SA is paying a hefty 172% premium to acquire Synthorx Inc. for $68 per share, or $2.5 billion in all, to add a clinical-stage immuno-oncology asset to its pipeline and a platform technology that will enable it to optimize cytokine-based drugs for cancer and autoimmune disease.
BEIJING – Luye Pharma Group Ltd., of Yantai, Shandong Province of China, has proposed to acquire Shandong Boan Biological Technology Co. Ltd. for up to $205.8 million to expand and diversify its pipeline portfolio into biologics. The payment is to be in three parts: an initial amount of $102.9 million, followed by payments linked to China marketing approval for two of Boan’s candidates of $51.45 million each.
HONG KONG – Rapt Therapeutics Inc., of San Francisco, and Seoul, South Korea-based Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. entered a license agreement for Rapt’s FLX-475 in Asia. FLX-475 is an oral, small-molecule CCR4 antagonist for cancer treatment.
Audentes Therapeutics Inc. CEO Matthew Patterson early last month characterized results with lead compound AT-132 in X-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM) as “unprecedented in neuromuscular disease,” and the value apparently wasn’t lost on Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc., which signed a deal worth about $3 billion to take over the company. Shares of Audentes (NASDAQ:BOLD) closed at $58.93, up $30.32, or 106%, on word of the buyout – which pairs the two firms’ gene therapy expertise and is slated to close in the first quarter of next year – at a cost of $60 per share in cash.
HONG KONG – South Korean company Alteogen Inc. signed a nonexclusive global license agreement with a top 10 global pharmaceutical company for its recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme, ALT-B4, in exchange for an up-front payment of $13 million.
<p>Shares of Audentes Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BOLD) were trading pre-market at $58.97, up $30.36, or 106% on word of the takeover by Astellas Pharma Inc., which is paying $60 per share in cash for an equity value of about $3 billion.</p>
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