Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals Inc. is getting $65 million up front in an early stage deal with Abbvie Inc. to discover neuroplastogens targeting psychiatric disorders, with the chance to receive up to $1.95 billion in options fees and milestones, plus tiered royalties in the mid-single to low-double digits from any products emerging from the collaboration.
Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc.’s deal with Sanofi SA to develop and commercialize oral losmapimod shone more light on facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), a rare genetic disease where Avidity Biosciences Inc. also has an earlier-stage but high-profile program.
Med-tech deal value increased in April, reaching $172.37 million, a 538% bump from March’s $27 million. However, the monthly average for deal value in 2024 stands at $140.68 million, reflecting an 84% decline from the 2023 monthly average of $886.13 million.
AC Immune SA has landed a potential $2.2 billion deal for its anti-amyloid beta Alzheimer’s disease vaccine, ACI-24.060, with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., under which it will get $100 million up front and is eligible to receive an option exercise fee, plus potential development, commercial and sales-based milestones of up to $2.1 billion.
A licensing deal worth potentially up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi SA has breathed new life into Novavax Inc., which has struggled to compete in the COVID-19 space with powerhouses Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc.
In April, the value of biopharma deals climbed to $15.28 billion, increasing 84% from March’s $8.29 billion and also up from February’s $7.76 billion, though there was a decline from January’s $27.9 billion. This amounts to a monthly average of $14.86 billion in deal value for 2024, compared to the $18.14 billion monthly average in 2023. Meanwhile, the value of biopharma M&As dipped to $1.33 billion for the month, marking the lowest figure in nearly a year.
In a research collaboration that could bring in up to $600 million, Metaphore Biotechnologies Inc. has become the third Flagship Pioneering company this year to cut a development deal with mighty obesity space player Novo Nordisk A/S.
India’s first indigenous CAR T therapy is expected to cost around $50,000, nearly one-tenth of the price of top-selling CAR Ts in the U.S. India President Droupadi Murmu officially launched Immunoadoptive Cell Therapy’s (Immunoact) NexCAR19 (actalycabtagene autoleucel), a CD19-targeted CAR T, and dedicated it to the nation in April 2024.
As Poseida Therapeutics Inc. anticipates reporting further data this year from allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy P-MUC1C-ALLO1, for which Astellas Pharma Inc. has nabbed first negotiation rights, the two companies inked a second deal aimed at combining their respective cell therapy platforms in an early stage collaboration targeting solid tumors.
South Korea’s HK Inno.N Corp. said on May 2 that it gained exclusive development and commercial rights to Hangzhou, China-based Sciwind Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s once-weekly, injectable glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist, XW-003 (ecnoglutide), in South Korea to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity.
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