Antifungals specialist F2G Ltd. has signed an agreement with Japanese pharma Shionogi & Co. Ltd. for development and commercialization of its treatment for invasive aspergillosis in both Asia and Europe. Under the terms of the deal, F2G is getting $100 million up front and regulatory and commercialization milestones of up to $380 million. The two partners will share clinical development costs.
Off-the-shelf cancer vaccine specialist Nouscom AG has taken the wraps off a multiproject agreement with Janssen Research and Development LLC, after the lead candidate received FDA approval to enter clinical trials.
Cullinan Oncology Inc.’s lead program deal with Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. subsidiary Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. brings $275 million up front and the potential for as much as $130 million in regulatory milestone payments.
Visus Therapeutics Inc. has out-licensed phase III candidates Brimochol and Carbachol to Hong Kong’s Zhaoke Ophthalmology Ltd. to develop and commercialize its long-acting, presbyopia-correcting eye drops in greater China, South Korea and select Southeast Asian territories.
Beijing Zhifei Lvzhu Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has picked up rights to a whooping cough vaccine candidate from Intravacc B.V. on undisclosed terms. Zhifei Lvzhu gained exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the vaccine in China, as well as nonexclusive rights in Africa, South America, and selected Asian countries. In turn, Intravacc is eligible to receive milestone and up-front payments plus royalties on net sales of the vaccine, should it reach market.
Orion Corp. has secured exclusive global rights, outside China, to a non-opioid pain drug candidate from Jiangxi Jemincare Group Co. Ltd. The deal, for oral sodium channel inhibitor JMKX-000623, brought Jemincare €15 million (US$15.6 million) up front.
Astrazeneca plc has signed up for more of the heavy-duty structure-based drug discovery services Proteros Biostructures GmbH specializes in, inking an extension to their existing collaboration agreement.
Valneva SE’s share price plummeted May 16 after the European Commission decided to terminate an advance purchase agreement for millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA-2001 because of delays in development. The company’s shares (Paris:VLA) fell more 19% to €9.65 (US$10.07) after it said it would reconsider its financial guidance for 2022.
A move by Chimerix Inc. to strengthen its balance sheet by $225 million through the sale of smallpox drug Tembexa (brincidofovir) to biodefense specialist Emergent Biosolutions Inc. and extend its cash runway into 2026, should have proved a big win. Instead, shares (NASDAQ:CMRX) plunged nearly 61% May 16 on worry that Chimerix might be handing off a likely profitable program to fund a riskier oncology pipeline, a concern heightened by recent U.S. FDA feedback indicating lead oncology program ONC-201 might not be eligible for accelerated approval as previously expected.
Beacon Biosignals Inc. has teamed up with Stratus Inc., a provider of electroencephalogram (EEG) services, to improve at-home brain monitoring and neurodiagnostics using Beacon’s machine learning-driven neuroanalytics platform. The collaboration will increase opportunities for home-based studies of Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.