Rockwell Medical Inc. has acquired the hemodialysis concentrates business of Evoqua Water Technologies LLC for $11 million up front in cash plus two $2.5 million milestone payments at 12- and 24-months following the close of the deal.
To bolster its obesity treatment pipeline, Eli Lilly and Co. is buying Versanis Bio Inc. in a massive cash deal that could reach $1.92 billion. The total amount of the deal includes an up-front payment and development and sales milestone payments. Privately held Versanis, of Boston, brings to Lilly its lead asset bimagrumab, a monoclonal antibody that’s enjoying a resurgence since a failure in treating sarcopenia.
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.
The European Commission (EC) fined Illumina Inc. a record €432 million (US$476 million) for closing the acquisition of Grail Inc. before receiving regulatory approval. It is the highest fine ever imposed on a company by the EC for completing a deal without its consent. Grail was fined €1,000. The companies were found to be in breach of EU merger control rules.
Lotte Biologics Co. Ltd. said it partnered with domestic bioventure Kanaph Therapeutics Inc. to develop an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology platform in hopes of rounding out a full, in-house ADC value-chain.
Astellas Pharma Inc. and 4D Molecular Therapeutics Inc. (4DMT) inked a deal worth up to $942 million under which Astellas will license 4DMT's intravitreal R100 gene therapy vector for rare ophthalmic targets.
Privately held F-star Therapeutics Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have completed their third license agreement, one that could bring F-star about $1 billion. The new collaboration is focused on R&D against undisclosed cancer targets.
In a move to address both prevention and treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV), Brii Biosciences Ltd. has acquired from VBI Vaccines Inc. a global exclusive license to HBV therapeutic vaccine BRII-179 (VBI-2601) and an exclusive license for HBV prophylactic vaccine Prehevbri in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan.
Extending its efforts in the booming antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) space, Beigene Co. Ltd. tapped Duality Biologics Co. Ltd. in a deal that could be worth a potential $1.3 billion, picking up an option for rights to a preclinical-stage ADC candidate targeting select solid tumors. It marks the seventh $1 billion-plus ADC-focused deal so far in 2023 and the second for Dualitybio, which inked a potential $1.7 billion deal in April.