DUBLIN – Evotec SE is taking a further crack at kidney disease, through a 50-50 joint venture with Vifor Pharma Group, which is funding an initial drug discovery and preclinical development phase with €25 million (US$27.6 million). The as-yet-unnamed venture aims to capitalize on Evotec's participation in a large-scale U.K. biobank, which is tracking about 4,000 patients with either chronic kidney disease or idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.
Allogene Therapeutics Inc., a South San Francisco-based company developing off-the-shelf allogeneic T-cell therapies for cancer, is taking a 25% stake in Notch Therapeutics Inc., paying the Canadian startup $10 million up front in an exclusive deal to research and develop new induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC)-based CAR T therapies. The partners will initially focus on developing next-generation treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), leukemia and multiple myeloma.
HONG KONG – Canadian company Pascal Biosciences Inc., headquartered in Vancouver, and South Korean biotech Y-biologics Inc., based in Daejeon, have signed a research collaboration agreement for the discovery and development of bispecific antibodies for the treatment of leukemia.
HONG KONG – South Korean AI-based biotech Azoth Bio Inc., of Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, and biopharmaceutical venture Wellmarker Bio Co. Ltd., based in Seoul, have signed a memorandum of understanding for cancer drug R&D and commercialization. Under the agreement, the two entities will use Azoth's AI-powered platform to develop Wellmarker's cancer treatment candidates.
When the time was right to make a powerful Western biotech welcome in China, Beigene Ltd. was ready when Amgen Inc. came calling. Its massive $2.7 billion cash equity investment in Beigene buys Amgen an oncology footprint in China.
RNAi specialist Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s chief operating officer, James Weissman, told BioWorld that scientists inside and outside of the company have come to believe in what's called "the X hypothesis" in hepatitis B virus (HBV). "My view, though, as a person who has been in the pharmaceutical industry for decades, is who cares, anyway?" he said – as long as the drug works. He pointed out that, with the cholesterol therapy Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) from New York-based Pfizer Inc., where he served in business development and marketing, "everybody had a different theory for why it lowered the incidence of heart disease. Nobody knew with certainty."
Pandion Therapeutics Inc.'s deal with Astellas Pharma Inc. brings as much as $45 million in up-front money and payments related to research and preclinical activities, with potentially more than $750 million in development and commercial milestone rewards to come, plus royalties if products reach the market.
BEIJING – Sino-U.S. infectious diseases specialist Brii Biosciences Inc., with U.S. offices in Durham, N.C., and San Francisco, and China offices in Beijing and Shanghai, is bringing to greater China three investigational products from anti-infective therapy developer Qpex Biopharma Inc., of San Diego, to treat various multidrug-resistant gram-negative infections.
BOGOTA, Colombia – Looking to dig deeper into its rest-of-the-world market operations, Canadian firm Knight Therapeutics Inc. acquired Latin America's largest biotech company, Biotoscana Investments SA.
HONG KONG – South Korean biotech company Qurient Co. Ltd. has inked a joint venture (JV) foundation deal involving German companies Max Planck Society (MPG), of Munich, and Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC) in Dortmund, as well as the 1988 Nobel laureate and biochemist Robert Huber.
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