Astrazeneca plc has signed up for more of the heavy-duty structure-based drug discovery services Proteros Biostructures GmbH specializes in, inking an extension to their existing collaboration agreement.
Kriya Therapeutics Inc. has raised a $270 million series C financing to further develop its pipeline of gene therapies for treating cancer, ophthalmological problems, and rare and chronic diseases. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company has greatly expanded its employee roster, from about seven people to around 160 people, since its $80 million series A in May 2020 and scaled its learning-enabled tech and cloud computing abilities. It also further solidified its technology, manufacturing, R&D, and therapeutics units, something it plans to continue with the series C money.
A move by Chimerix Inc. to strengthen its balance sheet by $225 million through the sale of smallpox drug Tembexa (brincidofovir) to biodefense specialist Emergent Biosolutions Inc. and extend its cash runway into 2026, should have proved a big win. Instead, shares (NASDAQ:CMRX) plunged nearly 61% May 16 on worry that Chimerix might be handing off a likely profitable program to fund a riskier oncology pipeline, a concern heightened by recent U.S. FDA feedback indicating lead oncology program ONC-201 might not be eligible for accelerated approval as previously expected.
Orion Corp. has secured exclusive global rights, outside China, to a non-opioid pain drug candidate from Jiangxi Jemincare Group Co. Ltd. The deal, for oral sodium channel inhibitor JMKX-000623, brought Jemincare €15 million (US$15.6 million) up front. In addition, Orion could pay the Chinese company development, commercialization, and sales milestones that Orion suggested could be “significant,” as well as tiered royalties of 8% to 15% based on future sales.
Cullinan Oncology Inc.’s lead program deal with Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. subsidiary Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. brings $275 million up front and the potential for as much as $130 million in regulatory milestone payments.
Bridgebio Pharma Inc. is going back to the Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) well to restore its stalled momentum as the two companies have supercharged their July 2021 collaboration to develop an SHP2 inhibitor. Bridgebio could receive up to $905 million, including an up-front payment of $90 million plus $815 million in milestone and royalty payments, expected to be in the low- to midteens, in its new BMS collaboration to develop and commercialize BBP-398 in oncology.
A phase III failure for Roche Holding AG unit Genentech Inc.'s anti-TIGIT immunotherapy tiragolumab dragged down the share value of several other class entrants.
With a 2020 launch behind it, Moma Therapeutics Inc. has completed a $150 series B financing to continue refining its pipeline of therapies targeting tough-to-drug enzymes in treating solid tumors.
Askgene Pharma Inc., which less than two weeks ago reported positive initial data from an ongoing phase I/II trial testing its claudin 18.2-targeting candidate, ASKB-589, added $20 million in a series A round, intended to advance the company’s clinical pipeline and support further development of its Smartkine cytokine drug platform.
Juniper Biologics Pte. Ltd. has added another candidate to its pipeline in the space of less than a month. In the latest deal, the Singapore-based company inked an exclusive licensing agreement with Switzerland’s Helsinn Healthcare SA, gaining rights to develop and commercialize oncology drug infigratinib in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and certain markets in the Middle East and Africa.
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