BEIJING – U.S.-Taiwan biotech Acepodia Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., and Taipei, has licensed out two of its cell therapy candidates, ACE-1702 and ACE-1655, to Chinese CAR T therapy developer JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize them in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Acepodia will receive up-front and milestone payments from JW Therapeutics, plus royalties on sales.
The worldwide option and license agreement Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. drew up with Abbvie Inc. for ALPN-101, a dual CD28/ICOS co-stimulation antagonist for treating systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune diseases, heartily strengthened Alpine’s stock and supports its planned operations into 2023.
PERTH, Australia – Melbourne-based Prescient Therapeutics Pty Ltd. is poised to develop next-generation CAR T therapies after signing an exclusive global licensing deal with the University of Pennsylvania for a universal immune receptor technology platform.
HONG KONG – After inking a recent deal with China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd., South Korea’s Crystalgenomics Inc. is celebrating its 20th anniversary by seeking more partners to further develop its anti-PD-1 inhibitor pipeline.
Privately held Memgen LLC and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center agreed to technology licensing agreements covering intellectual property the two jointly developed. The deal includes MEM-288, Memgen’s lead candidate, which the company said exhibits significantly enhanced selectivity and activity against a range of tumor types.
Leo Pharma A/S, of Ballerup, Denmark, has eyed a stronger company presence in Asia during the past year and took a giant step to achieving it by signing a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with Oneness Biotech Co. Ltd., of Taipei, Taiwan, and Microbio Shanghai Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize FB-825 for treating atopic dermatitis and allergic asthma.
DUBLIN – Without particularly looking for a deal, immunometabolism specialist Sitryx Ltd. landed quite a large one – a licensing agreement in autoimmune disease with Eli Lilly and Co. involving up to four preclinical programs, for which it is receiving $50 million up front, $10 million as equity investment and up to $820 million in development milestones.
Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. said it's licensing a family of monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) to Seattle Genetics Inc. for inclusion in new early stage cancer-killing antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates, all directed to a single target. The deal holds $5 million up front for Five Prime, plus up to $525 million in milestone payments for the first two candidates. South San Francisco-based Five Prime's shares (NASDAQ:FPRX) rose about 18% on the deal, which interim CEO William Ringo said allows the firm "to realize value from our preclinical pipeline while prioritizing our clinical investments based on upcoming data readouts."
PERTH, Australia – Australian cell therapy developer Mesoblast Ltd. has partnered with Germany's Grünenthal Group to develop and commercialize Mesoblast's allogeneic cell therapy candidate, MPC-06-ID, in a deal that carves out Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
CEO Travis Mickle said prodrug-focused Kempharm Inc.'s potential $493 million deal with Gurnet Point Capital (GPC) marks "the end of a long journey to reach a very valuable point" in the story of the company, which has "ended with the same goal it started with" – gaining the best possible partner for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) prospects KP-415 and KP-484.
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