Nine-year-old IFM Therapeutics LLC has notched yet another big deal as Novartis AG will acquire all the outstanding capital stock of IFM Due Inc., a subsidiary of privately held IFM in an agreement that began five years ago. The newest deal brings IFM $90 million up front and makes it eligible for up to $745 million in milestone payments for a deal value of $835 million.

Advanced Medical Solutions Group plc (AMS) signed an agreement to buy Peters Surgical SAS for up to €141.4 million (US$154.6 million). The move by AMS for the tissue repair and skin closure manufacturer is part of its strategy to buy assets which will strengthen its product portfolio and broaden its global reach.

Technology of genomically recoded organisms borne out of Yale and Stanford university laboratories and housed at Khosla Ventures-backed Pearl Bio received validation on March 12 through a $1 billion deal signed with Merck & Co. Inc. Cambridge, Mass.-based Pearl, which emerged from stealth last year, is eligible for the funds through up-front, option and milestone payments, plus potential royalties on sales of deal-related products that gain approval. The synthetic biology company aims to create a new class of multi-functionalized therapeutics with tunable properties. The deal with Rahway, N.J.-based Merck will focus on new cancer biologics.

Sosei Group Corp. is getting €25 million (US$27.3 million) up front in a global collaboration and option-to-license deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH aimed at developing GPR52 agonists, a new target for schizophrenia designed to potentially address positive, negative and cognitive symptoms at the same time.

Yuhan Corp., of Seoul, South Korea, added a new potential cancer drug to its oncology pipeline, licensing a son of sevenless homolog 1 (SOS1) inhibitor co-developed by Cyrus Therapeutics Inc. and Kanaph Therapeutics Inc. for ₩208 billion (US$156.3 million).

Another med-tech acquisition was wiped off the charts after Japan’s Olympus Corp. rescinded the acquisition of South Korean medical device firm Taewoong Medical Co. Ltd. on March 7, after finding “data integrity issues” related to Taewoong’s products.

Sosei Group Corp. is getting €25 million (US$27.3 million) up front in a global collaboration and option-to-license deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH aimed at developing GPR52 agonists, a new target for schizophrenia designed to potentially address positive, negative and cognitive symptoms at the same time.

Yuhan Corp., of Seoul, South Korea, added a new potential cancer drug to its oncology pipeline, licensing a son of sevenless homolog 1 (SOS1) inhibitor co-developed by Cyrus Therapeutics Inc. and Kanaph Therapeutics Inc. for ₩208 billion (US$156.3 million).

Merus NV added Gilead Sciences Inc. to its collaboration roster, entering a deal potentially worth more than $1.5 billion. While its previous agreements have focused primarily on bispecific antibodies, the Gilead alliance takes aim at trispecifics, antibodies capable of binding three targets at once. In other news, shares of Biomx Inc. (NYSE:PHGE) jumped 194% March 6, ending the day at 68 cents, up 45 cents, on news that it was merging with fellow phage-focused company Adaptive Phage Therapeutics Inc. and raised $50 million in a concurrent private placement.