PERTH, Australia – Medical device and analytics company Trajan Group Holdings Ltd. has acquired the business and manufacturing facilities of Axel Semrau GmbH & Co., based in Sprockhövel, Germany, for AU$26 million (US$18.7 million), expanding the company’s global operations. Axel Semrau develops and manufactures laboratory automation and chromatography software and detection systems. The acquisition is the company’s most significant to date and broadens the company’s manufacturing base in Europe, Trajan founder and CEO Stephen Tomisich told BioWorld.
Bright Peak Therapeutics Inc. has licensed rights to use Livzon Mabpharm Inc.’s anti-PD-1 candidate, LZM-009, to develop its own PD-1 targeted immunocytokines (PD-1 ICs). Bertolt Kreft, chief scientific officer for Bright Peak, told BioWorld that Livzon’s phase II anti-PD-1 “exhibits a promising initial safety and efficacy profile, making it well-suited to the task.
Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK) tapped Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. for its foray into nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), as the pair signed an exclusive global licensing deal (excluding China) for GSK to develop and commercialize phase I/II-stage ARO-HSD, Arrowhead’s RNAi therapy targeting HSD17B13.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has completed a $20 million equity investment in Compugen Ltd., part of an ongoing expansion a collaboration between the companies to combine their medicines for the potential benefit of patients with solid tumors.
Sotio Biotech AS has licensed Legochem Biosciences Inc.’s technology for five new antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) in a deal that could bring the latter over $1 billion. Prague, Czech Republic-based Sotio will have the rights to deploy Legochem’s Conjuall and potent linker-payload platform, including multiple different payloads, for five therapeutic programs targeting solid tumors and combine its proprietary antibodies with it.
LONDON – Sosei Heptares is to get $100 million up front in a potential $2.6 billion deal with Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., in which the pair will develop muscarinic receptor agonists in the treatment of schizophrenia, dementia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. San Diego-based Neurocrine is taking rights to a portfolio of small molecules against specific subtypes of the muscarinic receptor family, targeting M1 and M4 alone, plus a dual M1/M4 agonist.
DUBLIN – A meaty licensing deal with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is as good a time as any to unveil a new corporate identity. Nykode Therapeutics AS, the Norwegian immunotherapy firm formerly known as Vaccibody, is banking $30 million up front, another $20 million as an equity investment, and could earn up to $875 million more in development and commercial milestones across a multiproduct deal to develop vaccines for cancer and infectious disease.
DUBLIN – Sanifit Therapeutics SA has found a taker for its phase III calcification inhibitor for kidney dialysis patients, SNF-472, in the shape of Vifor Pharma AG, which is acquiring the Spanish company outright for €205 million (US$231 million) up front, up to €170 million in potential clinical development, regulatory and market access milestones, as well as undisclosed commercial milestones.
Cytovia Therapeutics Inc. and Cellectis SA expanded their existing partnership to include new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) target and development in China by Cytovia’s joint venture firm, Cytolynx Therapeutics Hong Kong Ltd.
Voronoi Inc. licensed global rights to its monopolar spindle1 (MPS1) inhibitor, VRN-08, and a second undisclosed asset to Pyramid Biosciences Inc. in a deal worth up $846 million that preserves Voronoi’s rights to both assets in South Korea.
RSS
