Aptose Biosciences Inc. has bought over the worldwide rights to Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s myeloid kinome inhibitor in a deal worth up to $420 million. Seoul, South Korea-based Hanmi has granted Aptose exclusive worldwide rights to HM-43239 for all indications. The candidate was developed for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.
Trendlines Group Ltd. reported the acquisition of its portfolio company Orthospin Ltd. by Synthes GmbH, a division of Depuy Synthes, the orthopedics company of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), for $79.5 million in cash. Johnson & Johnson’s involvement in the company goes back to July 2018, when J&J Innovation (JJDC) led the company’s series A round.
Fapon Biotech Inc. expanded its presence in the global next-generation sequencing (NGS) market by acquiring all of the shares in U.S. firm Sequlite Genomics US Inc. With the acquisition, the Dongguan, China-based Fapon Biotech will manage Sequlite’s product development and business operation.
A more than 20-year uneasy biopharma romance between two Swiss giants will be ending as Novartis AG plans to sell its stake in Roche Holding AG back to Roche for about $20.7 billion. Roche described it as a “disentanglement of the two competitors” that will allow it to regain “full strategic flexibility.” Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis currently owns about one-third of Roche, whose shareholders get the final say-so when they vote yea or nay at the company’s Nov. 26 extraordinary general meeting. Novartis was very clear about how it views its stake in Roche, as the company said it “does not consider the financial investment in Roche as part of its core business and therefore not a strategic asset” and that it’s time to “monetize our investment.”
Four years after an initial investment, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. exercised its option to acquire Gammadelta Therapeutics Ltd. to develop gamma delta T-cell therapies for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.
Antengene Corp. Ltd. has formed a partnership with Legochem Biosciences Inc. to jointly develop new antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) primarily for cancer. The partners will integrate antibodies from Antengene with Legochem’s ADC technology.
Shanghai Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd. out-licensed global rights of its antitumor small-molecule chemical drug, SPH-6162, to U.S.-based Huya Bioscience International LLC in a deal worth up to $292.5 million, plus a sales commission of 3% to 6%.
Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. has acquired a 73% stake of Antejin Biotech Co. Ltd. in a merger and acquisition deal worth up to ¥4.006 billion (US$626.2 million) to expand its pipeline in the field of bacterial vaccines. To kick off, Shanghai-based Fosun purchased about 32.52% equity interest in Antejin from nine shareholders for about ¥1.108 billion in cash.
Astrazeneca plc has signed an agreement with liquid biopsy testing company Saga Diagnostics AB to develop dPCR assays. Lund, Sweden-based Saga Diagnostics will develop Sagasafe dPCR assays towards undisclosed methylated targets for analysis of tissue samples and liquid biopsies. The assay is part of Saga’s portfolio of “ultrasensitive technologies,” comprising Sagasign for personalized monitoring of cancer burden and minimal residual disease.
LONDON – Just nine months on from announcing the close of its $6.9 million seed round, Dunad Therapeutics Ltd. has landed a potential $1.3 billion deal with Novartis AG to discover and develop orally available protein degradation drugs. The cash is, of course, backend-loaded, but Dunad is getting a handy $24 million up-front payment and equity investment, and will receive full funding for the research.
RSS
