SAN DIEGO – At the Biocom 10th Annual Global Life Sciences Partnering Conference, panels of pharma executives highlighted what they're looking for to supplement their pipelines and offered advice that ran the gamut from company formation to the courting process to strategies for partnering pipeline drugs and platforms.
Launching a broad new front in its long-running battle against dementia and other neurological diseases, Biogen Inc. has moved to license multiple Sangamo Therapeutics Inc. programs for $350 million up front plus up to $2.37 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments.
Aptevo Therapeutics Inc.’s chief scientific officer, Jane Gross, told BioWorld that the sale of the firm’s marketed recombinant hemophilia B therapeutic, Ixinity, to Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. allowed for a “cleaner message” to Wall Street. “It was a little difficult to explain having a commercial asset and an R&D pipeline,” she said.
Bicycle Therapeutics plc said Roche Holding AG's Genentech Inc. has agreed to pay $30 million up front for rights to develop and commercialize up to four potential immuno-oncology therapies using the company's bicyclic peptide platform. Bicycle will be responsible for all discovery and lead optimization, while Genentech will take up R&D beyond that.
Paris-based Sanofi SA, responding to increasing medicine shortages and drugmakers' heavy reliance on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) sourced from Asia, said it plans to create a major new API manufacturer headquartered in France.
DUBLIN – Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH is banking $50 million up front and could earn up to $550 million more in per-product milestones from an adoptive cell therapy deal in solid tumor indications with Glaxosmithkline plc, which initially involves two autologous cell therapies engineered to express T-cell receptors (TCRs) that bind novel cancer targets. Immatics would receive royalties on sales of any approved therapies.
Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. said it's licensing a family of monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) to Seattle Genetics Inc. for inclusion in new early stage cancer-killing antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates, all directed to a single target. The deal holds $5 million up front for Five Prime, plus up to $525 million in milestone payments for the first two candidates. South San Francisco-based Five Prime's shares (NASDAQ:FPRX) rose about 18% on the deal, which interim CEO William Ringo said allows the firm "to realize value from our preclinical pipeline while prioritizing our clinical investments based on upcoming data readouts."
A little more than two years after first licensing U.S. commercial rights to the Nucynta (tapentadol) pain drug franchise from Depomed Inc., specialty pharma Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc. is acquiring those rights from Depomed successor Assertio Therapeutics Inc. for $375 million in cash, less royalties paid to Assertio in 2020. The deal, which includes both extended-release (ER) and immediate-release formulations of the drug, is expected to close by Feb. 14. It will be financed with $325 million in committed debt financing.
Timber Pharmaceuticals LLC, a startup created by New Jersey-based investment and operating firm Tardimed Sciences LLC, said it's poised to make a fresh leap into the public market this year with plans to take over Biopharmx Corp.'s NYSE listing in a new reverse merger deal.
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