PARIS – Oncomfort SA has entered a partnership with Vygon SA for distribution of its Sedakit in six countries in Europe. The synergy between Vygon’s specialization and Oncomfort’s fields of application aims to enable greater acceleration of the adoption of Digital Sedation by health care professionals and patients. “Thanks to this strategic partnership, our new technology for relieving patient pain and anxiety without medication is going to be widely available in Europe,” Mario Huyghe, CEO of Oncomfort, told BioWorld.

In another multibillion-dollar bid to further strengthen its oncology pipeline, Merck & Co. Inc. is set to acquire privately held Velosbio Inc. for $2.75 billion in cash. Velosbio is developing cancer therapies targeting receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1. The company’s follow-on programs include next-generation antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific immune-engagers targeting ROR1, which it has been developing for nearly two years.

Ocular Therapeutix Inc. and Affamed Therapeutics Ltd. entered a license and collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize Dextenza and OTX-TIC in greater China, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations markets.

HONG KONG – Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. inked a licensing agreement with Legochem Biosciences Inc. for LCB-71, the latter’s antibody-drug conjugate.

Perkinelmer Inc. is looking to bolster its life sciences offerings with the purchase of cell engineering company Horizon Discovery Group plc for $383 million. The all-cash acquisition will add gene-editing and gene-modulation tools to Perkinelmer’s existing portfolio of discovery and applied genomics solutions. Headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., Horizon provides CRISPR and RNA interference (RNAi) reagents, cell models, cell engineering and based editing products to aid in drug discovery and development.