Despite the title of the Sunday, June 4 lead-off presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, there was little room left for doubt about the increasingly important place of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug development.
In a deal potentially worth $392 million, C4 Therapeutics Inc. signed with Betta Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. to develop and market an orally bioavailable BiDAC degrader for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Immutep Ltd. announced an AU$80 million (US$52.1 million) capital raise that consists of a AU$50 million placement and a AU$30 million entitlement offer to eligible shareholders to fund clinical programs for lead candidate eftilagimod (IMP-321, efti), a lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3) fusion protein and major histocompatibility complex class II agonist that stimulates both innate and adaptive immunity for treating cancer.
Bayer AG’s copanlisib was approved in China for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma who have received at least two prior systemic therapies. It is the first indication approved in the country for copanlisib, which is entering a market with room to grow but marked by some domestic competition.
Coherent Biopharma Co. Ltd. raised $100 million in series B and B+ financing rounds to step up its efforts to develop its bi-targeting ligand-drug conjugate (Bi-XDC) drugs and get them to market. Suzhou, China-based Coherent plans to use its newly expanded war chest to support the clinical trials of three candidates, CBP-1008, CBP-1018 and CBP-1019, as well as an IND application for CBP-8008 in China and the U.S., the company told BioWorld.
In a deal worth as much as $600 million, Lanova Medicines Ltd. licensed exclusive global rights to Astrazeneca plc for LM-305, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting GPRC5D, for multiple myeloma (MM). Lanova will receive up-front and near-term payments of up to $55 million and development and commercial milestone payments of up to $545 million, as well as tiered royalties on net sales worldwide.
Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc. (CBMG) licensed a pair of candidates for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma to Janssen Biotech Inc. for development outside of greater China. The candidates are anti-CD19 and CD20 bispecific CAR T-cell therapy C-CAR039 and anti-CD20 CAR T-cell therapy C-CAR066.
In the latest deal from the burgeoning antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) space, Eisai Co. Ltd. and privately held Bliss Biopharmaceutical (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd. reached a development and commercialization agreement that could be worth up to $2 billion. The massive collaboration is the eighth largest so far this year and one of three that involve ADCs in the year’s top 10 deals.
Roche AG acquired global rights to Zion Pharma Ltd.’s lead program, ZN-A-1041, an orally administered selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is designed to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and can prevent and treat brain metastases in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients.
Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody toripalimab showed positive interim event-free survival (EFS) results in a phase III study to treat patients with resectable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This is the world’s first phase III trial that shows perioperative treatment with an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody significantly extends EFS of patients with resectable NSCLC, according to Shanghai-based Junshi Biosciences.
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