Recent word that Johnson & Johnson submitted the BLA for teclistamab may have reminded Wall Street that a combo-therapy face-off is in progress between the big pharma firm – with partner Springworks Therapeutics Inc. – and Novartis AG, paired with Ayala Therapeutics Inc.
Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd.’s subsidiary Xuanzhu Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has raised ¥610.5 million ($96 million) in a series B round led by Sunshine Life Insurance Corp. Ltd.
Ikena Oncology Inc.’s plan to launch the first-in-human phase I study with IK-930, a transcriptional enhanced associate domain inhibitor targeting the Hippo pathway in cancer, brought new attention to the Hippo space. The FDA accepted Ikena’s IND application early last month. Now, work with other candidates is picking up steam at a handful of companies pursuing early stage prospects.
Legochem Biosciences Inc. has licensed out its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) LCB-14 to Iksuda Therapeutics Ltd. in the duo’s latest deal that is worth $1 billion. Daejeon, South Korea-based Legochem will receive $50 million in an up-front payment and near-term milestones, and up to $950 million in developments, regulatory and commercial milestones.
DUBLIN – ITM Isotope Technologies Munich (ITM) SE has secured its first radiopharmaceutical licensing deal in China, a pact with Grand Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. involving two radiopharmaceutical candidates, as well as a companion diagnostic for one of them.
Antengene Corp. Ltd. received marketing approval from China’s NMPA for ATG-010 (selinexor), a drug that was in-licensed from Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. It was approved for use in combination with dexamethasone to treat adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, specifically those who have received prior therapies and whose disease is refractory to at least a proteasome inhibitor, an immunomodulatory agent and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.
Sanofi SA is paying about $1 billion up front and pledging as much as $225 million in development milestone payments to acquire Amunix Pharmaceuticals Inc. in an arrangement that brings aboard several immuno-oncology platforms. South San Francisco-based Amunix’s lead candidate is the clinic-bound, masked T-cell engager (TCE) AMX-818, which targets HER2-expressing solid tumors. The candidate emerged from the company’s XPAT technology, designed with the longstanding XTEN and centered on a protein polymer in a strategy similar to pegylation, except with a polypeptide. XPAT stands for XTENylated, protease-activated TCEs.
Obi Pharma Inc. has acquired global rights to BSI-04702, an anti-trophoblast antigen 2 (Trop2) humanized monoclonal antibody (MAb), from Biosion Inc. Obi is granted exclusive rights for further preclinical and clinical development, registration and commercialization of the candidate as an antibody-drug conjugate and other derivative products.
PERTH, Australia – The FDA has given the green light to Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd.’s lead radiopharmaceutical imaging agent, Illuccix, for prostate cancer. Illuccix is a kit for the preparation of gallium-68 (68Ga) prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) 11 for imaging prostate cancer with positron emission tomography (PET). It targets PSMA, a protein that is overexpressed on the surface of more than 90% of primary and metastatic prostate cancer cells.