LONDON – Bridgebio Inc. has made a huge turn on the initial $65 million it invested in 2018 to acquire rights to infigratinib from Novartis AG, sealing a $2 billion commercialization deal with Swiss oncology specialist Helsinn Group for the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor just four years later. Helsinn will work with Bridgebio affiliate QED Therapeutics Inc. on U.S. co-commercialization of infigratinib in oncology and all other indications apart from skeletal dysplasias, with profits and losses shared on a 50-50 basis.

Bridgene Biosciences Inc., a company using an in-house chemoproteomic platform to find and develop small molecules for hard-to-drug targets, has signed its first major pharma partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. for an undisclosed up-front payment.

Somalogic Inc. has agreed to go public via a merger with blank-check company CM Life Sciences II. Upon closing, CMLS II – a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by affiliates of Casdin Capital LLC and Corvex Management LP – will be renamed Somalogic and its common stock listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol SLGC.

PARIS – Implanet SA won approval from its founding shareholders to acquire a majority stake in spinal implant manufacturer Orthopaedic & Spine Development SAS (OSD). Implanet’s bid is aimed at acquiring majority control, and potentially the entire share capital, of Avignon, France-based OSD, valued at $5 million. OSD’s founding shareholders, representing 71.5% of the capital, have already committed to respond favorably to the bid, thus confirming the principles behind this merger.

Small-molecule mRNA translation expert Anima Biotech Inc. has landed a significant new preclinical research deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., covering as many as six programs for genetically defined neurological diseases. The deal starts with $120 million in up-front and preclinical research milestone payments for Anima, but altogether the two-part collaboration could hold as much as $2.3 billion.

Thirteen months after establishing a strategic alliance to distribute 7D Surgical Inc.’s machine-vision, image-guided surgery platform, Seaspine Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SPNE) signed an agreement to acquire the Toronto-based company. 7D Surgical shareholders will receive $27.5 million in cash plus $82.5 million in Seaspine stock and will hold approximately 13% of Seaspine’s shares at completion. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

Biopharma deal values in 2021 are already tracking about 12% ahead of this time last year, while M&A values have declined by 57%.

PARIS – Whitelab Genomics SAS has signed a partnership agreement with Genethon, a French research center in the field of gene therapy, to ramp up development of genetic therapy techniques using artificial intelligence (AI). As part of this partnership, Genethon will use the Whitelab Genomics Catalyst platform to develop new capsids.