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.
Miragen Therapeutics Inc. gained ground lost on Wall Street earlier this month and then some, with shares (NASDAQ:MGEN) closing at $1.26, up 74 cents or 142% after the company disclosed plans to take over Viridian Therapeutics Inc., conducting at the same time a private placement that will raise $91 million.
Chinese pharma giant Huadong Medicine Co. Ltd. has licensed rights to mirvetuximab soravtansine, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for ovarian cancer, from Immunogen Inc., marking its first step into a realm embraced by a growing number of Chinese biopharma player: innovative medicines.
Shares of early cancer detection company Exact Sciences Corp. soared Tuesday morning on news it is acquiring two liquid biopsy screening companies, Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. and Base Genomics Ltd., for $2.56 billion and selling $869 million of common stock to institutional investors.
PERTH, Australia – Neuroscience technology company Cogstate Ltd. and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. Ltd. signed a deal under which Eisai will have global development rights and exclusive commercialization rights of all cognitive function tests developed by Cogstate, including the Cogstate Brief Battery (CBB) for use in health care and other markets.
Just weeks after exclusively out-licensing China rights for its anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody (MAb), sugemalimab, to Pfizer Inc., Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has monetized it again in a valuable new deal with Eqrx Inc. Deal terms include $150 million up front and as much as $1.15 billion in milestones for Cstone in exchange for full commercial rights to sugemalimab and the anti-PD-1 MAb CS-1003 outside greater China. Cstone could also receive tiered royalties if the products reach market.
Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc. could receive up to $1.25 billion from Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) AB in their collaboration to develop systemic pegcetacoplan, a C3 therapy for treating several rare diseases in hematology, nephrology and neurology.
The fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor space may seem, in the words of one analyst, “historically a graveyard,” but that didn’t keep Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc from buying Springworks Therapeutics Inc.’s program with a plan to take aim first at post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated symptoms.
LONDON – Bayer AG is making a major move into gene therapy with the $4 billion acquisition of one of the pioneers of the field, Asklepios Biopharmaceutical Inc. The deal will give the German pharma access to an adeno-associated viral vector platform that has generated multiple commercial and clinical stage assets across a broad range of indications from rare diseases to chronic conditions. The in-house portfolio includes treatments for Pompe and Parkinson’s diseases and congestive heart failure. Asklepios (Askbio) also has spun out programs in hemophilia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Solid Biosciences Inc. already has its own Duchenne muscular dystrophy program, but with some new investment money it is plunging into a collaboration with Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. to co-create another program. The two will collaborate on developing and commercializing new gene therapies for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy as Novato, Calif.-based Ultragenyx is investing $40 million in Solid.
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