The curtain is coming down on one of Europe’s longest-established biopharmas, with Novartis AG announcing it is to shut Morphosys AG’s facilities, following its 2024 acquisition of the one-time antibody pioneer for $2.9 billion. The closure of sites in the U.S. and Germany by the end of 2025 will affect 330 employees.
Dimerix Ltd. and Fuso Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. signed a license agreement for the development and commercialization of Dimerix’s phase III candidate, DMX-200, for the treatment of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis in Japan for ¥10.5 billion (US$66.5 million) plus royalties.
The antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) arena continues to ring up deals, as Avenzo Therapeutics Inc. signed an exclusive license agreement with Duality Biotherapeutics Inc., whereby Avenzo will develop, manufacture and commercialize AVZO-1418/DB-1418, described as a potential best-in-class EGFR/HER3 bispecific ADC, globally (excluding greater China).
About four years after launch, Orna Therapeutics Inc. signed its second major deal, this time validating the lipid nanoparticle delivery technology it acquired through its Renagade Therapeutics Inc. buyout in May 2024, with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. seeking next-generation approaches for hemoglobinopathies.
Already hot for years, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) continued to hold charm for the industry, sparking a number of sizable deals starting early in 2024, when Johnson & Johnson (J&J) put $2 billion on the table to take over Ambrx Biopharma Inc.
Despite a sometimes-turbulent stock market and over 18,000 job losses, 2024 closed with signs of recovery, marked by growth in both financings and deals, setting an optimistic tone for 2025.
Roche Holding AG kicked off the new year (again) with a potential $1 billion deal, including $80 million up front, for exclusive rights to Innovent Biologics Inc.’s IBI-3009, a DLL3-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate that recently entered a phase I study.
In a deal worth up to $1 billion, Ideaya Biosciences Inc. is in-licensing Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s SHR-4849, a phase I DLL3-targeting opo-I-payload antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Under terms of the deal, San Francisco-based Ideaya will develop and commercialize SHR-4849 worldwide outside of greater China, and Shanghai-based Hengrui is eligible to receive up to $1.04 billion that includes a $75 million up-front fee, $200 million in development and regulatory milestone payments, and commercial success-based milestone payments. Hengrui is also eligible to receive royalties on net sales outside of greater China.
At Bio Japan 2024, policymakers and industry leaders pledged to make Japan a land of drug discovery to attract native and foreign drug developers. Like many Asian countries, Japan is harnessing and prioritizing the bio sector to drive economic growth, throwing its weight behind its 10-year Bioeconomy initiative to create bioclusters and increase investment.
Sangamo Therapeutics Inc.’s stock sank sharply on the last day of 2025 as Pfizer Inc. handed back the rights to their collaborative gene therapy hemophilia A program. While it was another big loss to Sangamo, which had seen two other major deals fall through in the past two years, the company still has two large collaborations in development.
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