BEIJING – Suzhou, China-based Innovent Biologics Inc. is known in China as one of the first drugmakers to launch a PD-1 monoclonal antibody. Now, the company is moving to expand its product portfolio and enhance efforts in developing bispecific antibodies and cell therapies in a potential multibillion-dollar deal with pharma giant Roche Holding AG.
DUBLIN – Lycia Therapeutics Inc. raised $50 million in series A funding from founding investor Versant Ventures to take forward yet another novel concept in targeted protein degradation. The new company, which will be headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, is building on the work of Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry at Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, who has invented bifunctional structures called Lytacs – lysosomal targeting chimeras – which target extracellular or circulating proteins for internalization and lysosomal degradation by tethering them to lysosome targeting receptors at the cell surface.
HONG KONG – Two Chinese biotech companies, Hutchison China Meditech Ltd. (Chi-Med) and Beigene Ltd., are teaming up to evaluate their therapies as combination treatments for several cancers and in different key markets.
BEIJING – Three-year-old Asia-focused startup Everest Medicines Ltd. closed one of the biggest financing rounds in China’s health care market this year, adding $310 million to its war chest. The firm is aiming to advance its late-stage assets in-licensed from global partners to the China market soon.
Accent Therapeutics Inc. will receive $55 million up front and as much as $1.1 billion in milestones as part of a substantial new three-molecule deal with Astrazeneca plc, which committed to exploring what Astrazeneca’s oncology chief, José Baselga, called the "compelling" field of targeting RNA-modifying proteins (RMPs) for the treatment of cancer.
Chinese biotech firm Beigene Ltd. said its second-generation BTK inhibitor, Brukinsa (zanubrutinib), has won approval in China for two indications, entering a market dominated by Imbruvica (ibrutinib, Johnson & Johnson/Abbvie Inc.). The NDA approval came eight months after Brukinsa’s clearance in the U.S.
New interim phase II data from Replimune Group Inc., of Woburn, Mass., show RP-1 and Opdivo (nivolumab, Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co.) produced multiple complete responses and a high rate of deep responses in anti-PD-1/anti-CTLA-refractory melanoma.
HONG KONG – China’s Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd. has struck a deal with Merck KGaA for a clinical trial program in China to investigate the efficacy and safety of Junshi’s anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody (MAb), Tuoyi (toripalimab) in combination with Merck’s Erbitux (cetuximab) as a treatment for recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN).
Overall, data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology virtual meeting over the weekend appear to have garnered investor approval, with the BioWorld Cancer index advancing 3%, by market close Monday, and a further 1.7% by the closing bell today.
A key opinion leader (KOL) consulted by SVB Leerink deemed Roche Holding AG’s anti-TIGIT drug results “really huge” and “quite amazing,” affirming the Basel, Switzerland-based firm’s lead in the field. The phase II data from the study known as Cityscape rolled out at the virtual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.
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