Novartis AG has forged even stronger links with Beigene Ltd., taking an option on the latter’s late-stage TIGIT inhibitor cancer immunotherapy ociperlimab in a deal worth up to $1 billion. Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis will pay the Beijing-based pharma $300 million up front in the option, collaboration and license agreement plus up to $700 million if it exercises its option before late 2023.
Anheart Therapeutics Co. Ltd. raised $61 million in a series B round to support the development of a slate of precision oncology pipeline in-licensed by the company from Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. Toward that end, funds will support phase II testing of the Hangzhou, China-based firm’s lead asset, the ROS1 inhibitor taletrectinib, for the potential treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer.
DUBLIN – Anaveon AG raised CHF110 million (US$119.5 million) in a series B round to accelerate development of its interleukin-2 (IL-2) agonist ANV-419, which is currently undergoing a phase I/II trial. “We are putting our compound into multiple clinical trials and multiple indications in parallel,” CEO and co-founder Andreas Katopodis told BioWorld.
DUBLIN – Fans of “His Dark Materials” and the “Book of Dust,” Philip Pullman’s series of fantasy novels set in Oxford, U.K. and more remote corners of the earth, are familiar with alethiometers. In the hands of a highly select number of characters, these complex, compass-like devices can interrogate a mysterious substance called “dust” – an elementary particle associated with consciousness – and provide trusted answers to the most crucial questions.
Mythic Therapeutics Inc. officially launched with an oversubscribed series B round that garnered $103 million to design smarter, safer antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) by way of a technology originated by the company and dubbed Fatecontrol. Co-founder and CEO Alex Nichols said that, after about 40 years’ worth of development – and despite fairly recent wins – ADCs have been hampered by “toxicity and poor therapeutic index [that] have stopped them from reaching what we would consider to be their full potential.”
The error in phase III data reported in late October that sank Galera Therapeutics Inc.’s stock (NASDAQ:GRTX) has been corrected, prompting share values to nearly double on Dec. 14. The error, according to J. Mel Sorensen, Galera’s president and CEO, had resulted in a false “p” value, leading the company to report the study had failed to achieve statistical significance on its primary endpoint. He called the programming error that caused the confusion “quite subtle.”
DUBLIN – Immatics NV is banking $150 million up front and could earn up to $770 million more in development, regulatory and commercial milestones from a licensing deal with Bristol Myers Squibb Co. involving IMA-401, its lead bispecific engineered T-cell receptor (TCR).
Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. is receiving $300 million up front in cash in its new collaboration with Loxo Oncology at Lilly to develop oncology medicines. Foghorn could bring in up to $1.3 billion in development and commercialization milestones. In addition, Lilly will invest $80 million in Foghorn.
Canbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. has raised HK$604 million ($77.4 million) with a listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, selling about 56.3 million shares (1228.HK) at HK$12.18 per share. The shares fell to HK$8.90 at the close of trading Dec. 10. Almost half the funds will support advancement of Canbridge’s lead candidate, CAN-008, a glycosylated CD95-Fc fusion protein in phase II testing for glioblastoma, while another quarter will support other major pipeline programs.
Avistone Biotechnology Co. Ltd. raised more than $200 million to support its oncology drug development and the acquisition Pearl Biotechnology Co. Ltd. with the aim of creating a “fully-integrated” targeted oncology platform. Vivo Capital LLC led the financing, with participation from Bain Capital LP. and Primavera Capital Group.
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