Sunshine Guojian Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has granted Xiling Lab Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. global rights to develop and commercialize the trastuzumab biosimilar Cipterbin (inetetamab) for antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) in a ¥1.03 billion (US$153 million) deal.
Immuno-oncology company Imugene Ltd. reported median overall survival for patients receiving HER-Vaxx plus chemotherapy was 13.9 months compared to 8.3 months in patients treated with chemotherapy alone in its phase II study in HER2/neu overexpressing advanced gastric cancer.
London-based Invox Pharma Ltd. has announced plans to acquire F-star Therapeutics Inc. for $161 million to build up the presence of its parent company, Sino Biopharm Ltd., outside of China.
Astellas Pharma Inc. and Sutro Biopharma Inc. signed an exclusive global licensing deal under which Sutro will develop immunostimulatory antibody-drug conjugates (iADCs) for three biological targets for Astellas.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has given Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. subsidiary Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. the green light for its oral heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor Jeselhy (pimitespib) to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) that have progressed after chemotherapy. The company will soon commercialize the drug in Japan.
After its $247 million acquisition of Epizyme Inc., Ipsen SA will continue to shop for M&A prospects, said Ipsen CEO David Loew, noting that “the [company’s] firepower has not been absorbed in a significant fashion by this deal,” and the firm might undertake a larger transaction next time in oncology, rare diseases, or neurology.
Despite a huge amount of progress in the hot space CD47, there’s a large space beyond it to explore, according to DEM Biopharma Inc.’s CEO David Donabedian. The new company just raised $70 million to develop therapies targeting don’t eat me, hence DEM, and eat me signals on cancer cells and macrophages.
In the last decade, Bayer AG and Novartis AG have shown that radiopharmaceutical technology can produce marketable drugs, with Xofigo (radium-223 dichloride) and Lutathera (lutetium [177Lu] oxodotreotide), respectively approved for prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors.
New data from the phase I study of Ultimovacs ASA’s lead candidate showed positive two-year overall survival data for the cancer vaccine. UV-1, combined with the checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab, Merck & Co. Inc.) for treating malignant melanoma, demonstrated a 24-month survival rate of 73% in all 30 patients in the study.
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