Beone Medicines Ltd. gained an exclusive option to develop cancer immunotherapy HH-160 worldwide in a deal potentially worth more than $2 billion for Huahui Health Ltd., the developer of the trispecific antibody.

China’s investigator-initiated trial (IIT) system is increasingly being used to generate early human data in cell and gene therapies, and new changes that widen the pathway are expected to drive more multinational companies to conduct IITs in China, panelists said during the Chinabio Partnering Forum in Shanghai April 28-29.

Three years after Johnson & Johnson handed back rights to an siRNA candidate targeting a genetic driver of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. found a new partner in Madrigal Pharmaceuticals Inc., a firm that markets the first U.S. FDA-approved MASH drug, Rezdiffra (resmetirom), and has been building a pipeline in the space.

Beone Medicines Ltd. gained an exclusive option to develop cancer immunotherapy HH-160 worldwide in a deal potentially worth more than $2 billion for Huahui Health Ltd., the developer of the trispecific antibody.

Beone Medicines Ltd. gained an exclusive option to develop cancer immunotherapy HH-160 worldwide in a deal potentially worth more than $2 billion for Huahui Health Ltd., the developer of the trispecific antibody.

Dermatology specialist Leo Pharma A/S is moving into gene therapy with the $50 million acquisition of Replay Holdings LLC, a seed-stage company that is developing high capacity herpes simplex virus vectors to treat rare inherited diseases.

Astrazeneca plc has exercised an option under its collaboration with Pinetree Therapeutics Inc. to obtain an exclusive global license to develop and commercialize PTX-299, a first-in-class bispecific antibody degrader targeting EGFR. The option exercise triggers a $25 million payment to Pinetree.

Caredx Inc. has agreed to acquire Naveris Inc., a precision oncology diagnostics company, for up to $260 million, as part of its strategy to accelerate growth. The acquisition comes as Caredx, an organ transplant diagnostic firm, reshapes its portfolio, expanding its oncology profile while recently divesting its lab products business.

China’s investigator-initiated trial (IIT) system is increasingly being used to generate early human data in cell and gene therapies, and new changes that widen the pathway are expected to drive more multinational companies to conduct IITs in China, panelists said during the Chinabio Partnering Forum in Shanghai April 28-29.

In its largest acquisition to date, Chiesi Group is buying Kalvista Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $27 per share, a roughly 40% premium to the previous day’s closing price, putting the total deal value at about $1.9 billion. In return, the Italian pharma firm adds to its rare disease franchise Kalvista’s recently approved hereditary angioedema (HAE) drug, plasma kallikrein inhibitor Ekterly (sebetralstat), which has gotten off to a strong commercial launch as the only orally available, on-demand treatment for HAE.