BEIJING – Known for its transgenic mouse platforms to develop antibodies, U.S., China and the Netherlands-based Harbour Biomed Therapeutics Ltd. closed a series C funding round July 9 to raise $102.8 million to advance its late-stage clinical programs and COVID-19 pipeline.
Privately held Foghorn Therapeutics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., cut a collaboration deal with Merck & Co. Inc. to discover and develop therapeutics targeting the chromatin regulatory system in oncology that could eventually bring in as much as $450 million.
Zymeworks Inc.’s business update – which included a new, potential $891 million deal for multispecific antibody drugs with longtime partner Merck & Co. Inc. – drew mixed reviews from Wall Street, especially with regard to phase I prospect ZW-49.
HONG KONG – China and U.S.-based Zai Lab Ltd. has inked a deal to develop and commercialize Turning Point Therapeutics Inc.’s lead drug candidate, repotrectinib, in the greater China markets.
Velosbio Inc., a San Diego-based company developing cancer therapies targeting receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1), has raised $137 million in series B financing to support development of its lead antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), VLS-101, and continued expansion of its pipeline.
Kiadis Pharma NV’s takeover last year of Cytosen Therapeutics Inc. to get a natural killer (NK) platform paid off in a potentially huge way, with Sanofi SA paying €17.5 million (US$19.7 million) up front in a licensing deal with as much as €857.5 million more if preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial goals are reached, as well as up to double-digit royalties.
Corvus Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s success in treating a COVID-19 patient previously diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with CPI-006 helped boost shares (NASDAQ:CRVS) to $4.96, up $2.21, or 181%, as the Burlingame, Calif.-based company disclosed the start of a phase I study to investigate the anti-CD73 immunotherapy prospect.
Just shy of four years ago, MEI Pharma Inc. and Helsinn Group hashed out a $464 million deal to develop and commercialize pracinostat. Now an interim futility analysis has persuaded them to halt their phase III study in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) while, pending further evaluation, patients enrolled in other pracinostat studies continue their treatment.
The checkpoint molecule CD47 has high hopes riding on it in oncology as being the innate immune equivalent of PD-1. Multiple companies are developing blockers against CD47 and/or its ligand, SIRPa, for the treatment of various tumors.
Bolt Biotherapeutics Inc.’s $93.5 million series C round “takes us well into the back end of 2021 and into 2022,” CEO Randall Schatzman told BioWorld, with enough money that the firm is “not impeded in terms of the creativity [we’re] bringing to the table.”
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