Announcing two licensing deals with Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG, Shanghai-based Argo Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said on Jan. 7 that it stands to gain up to $4.165 billion for two of its cardiovascular assets combined. Marking the “first significant overseas out-licensing transaction in the RNAi field from a Chinese biotech company,” the deal includes an up-front payment of $185 million from Novartis to Argo.
Amid a flurry of dealmaking activity to start 2024, Allorion Therapeutics Inc., a 2020 startup based in Natick, Mass., and Guangzhou, China, has been extra busy. Two days after disclosing a potential $540 million deal with Astrazeneca plc, Allorion inked a licensing agreement with Avenzo Therapeutics Inc. that could total more than $1 billion.
Three months out from its first $1 billion deal with Biontech SE for an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), Suzhou, China-based Medilink Therapeutics Co. Ltd. clinched another potential $1 billion ADC deal, but this time with Roche Holding AG.
Nearly two years after Novartis AG signed a $1.7 billion deal for options to Voyager Therapeutics Inc.’s adeno-associated virus capsids for central nervous system disorders, the Basel, Switzerland-based company secured rights to develop gene therapies for Huntington’s disease and spinal muscular atrophy in a licensing agreement potentially worth $1.3 billion.
Elpiscience Biopharma Ltd. is out-licensing to Astellas Pharma Inc. two preclinical bispecific macrophage engagers – ES-019, an anti-PD-L1/SIRPα bispecific antibody, and another unnamed program – in a deal worth up to $1.7 billion. The deal marks the Shanghai-based company’s first out-licensing deal, Elpiscience CEO Darren Ji told BioWorld, noting that Astellas will have global rights to both molecules with a potential to in-license two more.
South Korean pharmaceutical Voronoi Inc. said that New Jersey-based Pyramid Biosciences Inc. terminated its previous $846 million deal for Voronoi’s solid and breast cancer drug candidate, VRN-08, in a letter dated Oct. 24, 2023.
Astrazeneca plc will pay up to $2 billion for Eccogene Co. Ltd.’s oral weight loss candidate, ECC-5004, as big and small pharma players alike work to gain ground in the burgeoning obesity market where Eli Lilly and Co. scored the latest U.S. FDA approval of Zepbound (tirzepatide).
Israeli biotech Biolinerx Ltd. will hand off the rights to its stem cell mobilizer, motixafortide, in Asia to China’s Gloria Biosciences Co. Ltd. via an out-licensing deal worth up to $280 million, news that sent stocks soaring nearly 13% on Oct. 31.
Shanghai-based Henlius Biotech Inc. and India’s Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. agreed upon a potential €185 million (US$195.38 million) licensing deal for Intas to develop and sell Henlius’ China NMPA-approved lung cancer drug, serplulimab, across Europe and India. Serplulimab (HLX-02) is a recombinant humanized PD-1 monoclonal antibody (MAb) injection that first gained approval as Hansizhuang in March 2022.
Drawn to the potential for improved selectivity and safety profiles of PARP-1-specific inhibitors over their first-generation counterparts, Merck KGaA signed an exclusive, worldwide license deal with Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. worth up to €1.4 billion (US$1.5 billion) to gain access to the latter’s next-generation poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-1 inhibitor, HRS-1167.
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