Another collaboration between two biopharmaceutical companies in the Asia-Pacific region is adding fuel to an already heated fire for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) development worldwide. Suzhou, China-headquartered Genequantum Healthcare Co. Ltd. and South Korea’s Aimedbio Inc. recently announced extending an existing partnership to jointly develop five ADC investigative drugs.
From Roche Holding AG to Novartis AG, bad news abounds for anti-TIGIT immunotherapies. In an SEC filing on July 11, Chinese oncology R&D firm Beigene Ltd. and Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis announced an end to their $1 billion deal to develop the former’s TIGIT immunotherapy ociperlimab, with the checkpoint inhibitor going back to Beigene.
Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. have expanded their development and commercialization partnership for Daybue (trofinetide) beyond the U.S. to take the Rett syndrome treatment to the world in a deal valued at $527 million plus royalties.
On the heels of a licensing deal last week, Genequantum Healthcare Co. Ltd. has struck another deal, this time out-licensing its conjugation technology to Inxmed Co. Ltd. to support development of next-generation targeted antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
With a bruising battle with its largest investor barely behind it, Masimo Corp.’s preliminary second quarter results came in nearly $100 million below consensus, putting management in an even tougher position now that it has two new investor-aligned board members. Share price plunged from $147.16 to $110 following the after-hours announcement on Monday. By the closing bell on Tuesday, shares had recovered modestly to $117.73.
Novartis AG just added muscle to its siRNA development effort by buying Dtx Pharma Inc. in an M&A deal that could total $1 billion. Novartis is getting a preclinical asset, DTx-1252, which just received the U.S. FDA’s orphan drug designation on June 8. Dtx is developing the siRNA candidate for treating the neuromuscular disease Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A). Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis will pay Dtx $500 million up front and make payments of up to $500 million in milestones completions.
Dealmaking proved alive and well, with Sangamo Biosciences Inc. disclosing a tie-up worth as much as $1.19 billion with a subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Co., while Mirum Pharmaceuticals Inc. pledged to acquire for $445 million the bile-acid product portfolio owned by Travere Therapeutics Inc.
The biopharma industry experienced a notable decline in deal values and activity in June 2023, with a 48.51% decrease in deal values and a 43.62% decrease in the number of deals completed compared to the previous June. M&As, however, showed a remarkable 824.59% increase in value year over year in June, thanks to several billion-dollar transactions.
Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. have expanded their development and commercialization partnership for Daybue (trofinetide) beyond the U.S. to take the Rett syndrome treatment to the world in a deal valued at $527 million plus royalties.
There are at least two ways to look at biopharma deals and M&As in 2023. Through one vantage point, the volume of both, and the value of M&As, are at their lowest levels in at least five years – and deal values have declined by 8% compared with 2022. From another perspective, however, M&As appear to be picking up, and those same declining deal values in the first half of 2023 represent the third highest amount since 2017.
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