DUBLIN – Zambon SpA is acquiring Breath Therapeutics BV for €140 million (US$155.8 million) up front plus up to €360 million more in regulatory and commercial milestones linked to the progress of Breath's drug-device combo, which is currently in phase III development for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), a fatal form of airway inflammation that can arise in lung transplant recipients.

Durect Corp. (NASDAQ: DRXX) got a solid bump after announcing it granted Gilead Sciences Inc. exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize a long-acting injectable HIV product created with Durect's platform, Saber, in a deal that could generate more than $300 million for Durect.

LONDON – Silence Therapeutics plc has finally secured a deal to transform its fortunes, signing up Mallinckrodt plc in a potential $693 million-per-asset collaboration to develop siRNA therapeutics that block the complement inflammatory cascade.

HONG KONG – Celltrion Inc., of South Korea, and Hong Kong-based conglomerate Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd. said they have built a joint venture named Vcell Healthcare Ltd., geared toward the Chinese market. 

Seongnam, Korea-based Bridge Biotherapeutics Inc. nailed down a deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (BI) to develop the former's phase I autotaxin (ATX) inhibitor, BBT-877, for fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

HONG KONG – Singaporean biotech company Aum Biosciences Pte. Ltd. has in-licensed a potentially first-in-class PIM/PI3K/mTOR inhibitor from Inflection Biosciences Ltd., of Dublin and London, to develop it globally to treat a wide range of cancers.

Astellas Pharma Inc. and Frequency Therapeutics Inc. have agreed to develop and commercialize Frequency's regenerative therapeutic candidate, FX-322, to treat sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

Kalvista Pharmaceuticals Inc. made big news in October 2017 by way of its handsome deal with Merck & Co. Inc. to advance KVD-001, an intravitreal injection candidate to treat diabetic macular edema (DME).

LONDON – Sosei Heptares has added Genentech Inc. to the list of partners seeking access to its G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) expertise, signing a collaboration with a headline value of $1 billion with the Roche Group company.

Rising from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland was science that Roche Holding AG's Genentech Inc. could not pass up, so it struck a deal with Convelo Therapeutics Inc. to discover and develop remyelinating medicines for patients with neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis.