Perkinelmer Inc. is looking to bolster its life sciences offerings with the purchase of cell engineering company Horizon Discovery Group plc for $383 million. The all-cash acquisition will add gene-editing and gene-modulation tools to Perkinelmer’s existing portfolio of discovery and applied genomics solutions. Headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., Horizon provides CRISPR and RNA interference (RNAi) reagents, cell models, cell engineering and based editing products to aid in drug discovery and development.

DUBLIN – Kiadis Pharma BV has parlayed its €31.9 million (US$37.2 million) stock-based acquisition of Cytosen Therapeutics Inc. last year, which involved an initial outlay of just €14.5 million worth of shares, into a €308 million payday with Sanofi SA.

Precision oncology company Genetron Holdings Ltd. has entered an exclusive licensing agreement for Seq-MRD, a diagnostic assay for detecting and monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD) in select hematologic cancers from med-tech startup Hangzhou Immuquad Biotechnologies Co. Ltd.

Ocular Therapeutix Inc. and Affamed Therapeutics Ltd. entered a license and collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize Dextenza and OTX-TIC in greater China, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations markets.

HONG KONG – Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. inked a licensing agreement with Legochem Biosciences Inc. for LCB-71, the latter’s antibody-drug conjugate.

Novartis AG is expanding its position in the optogenetics space with the acquisition of Vedere Bio Inc., bringing with it a program aimed at vision loss prevention and treatment. Shareholders of Vedere, created in June 2019 through the Atlas Venture incubator, received $150 million up front and are eligible for up to $130 million in milestone payments, bringing the total to $280 million.

Teleflex Inc. reeled in $628.3 million in revenue in the third quarter, down 3.1% from the same period last year but ahead of the Street’s estimate of $619.4 million. Earnings per share also beat consensus, at $2.46 vs. $2.24. The release of the quarterly results dovetailed with Teleflex’s reveal of a definitive agreement to acquire hemostatic products company Z-Medica LLC for up to $525 million.

With the world heading straight into a "very tough" stretch of the COVID-19 pandemic in which "too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases," according to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, two lucrative deals announced Oct. 28 showed little slack in efforts to confront the virus, even as evidence is still developing.