Partners Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Merck & Co. Inc. received a complete response letter (CRL) from the U.S. FDA for their first-in-class HER3-directed antibody-drug conjugate HER3-DXd (patritumab deruxtecan) to treat patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer.
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. (MSD), known as Merck & Co. Inc. in the U.S. and Canada, terminated its potential $1.86 billion deal with San Diego-based Artiva Biotherapeutics Inc. for novel chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer cell therapies. GC Cell disclosed news of the terminated deal on the Korea Exchange near market close of June 25, saying it was notified by Artiva after the decision was reached by MSD’s internal decision makers.
At a time when much of the biopharma space can’t seem to get enough of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), Bristol Myers Squibb Co. is backing away from a potential $3 billion-plus collaboration with Eisai Co. Ltd., handing back full rights to the latter’s folate receptor alpha-targeting ADC, farletuzumab ecteribulin (FZEC), citing a portfolio reprioritization. Global rights to FZEC now reside with Tokyo-based Eisai, which said it intends to accelerate work on the candidate, which is in three clinical studies, including two phase II trials in gynecological cancers and non-small-cell lung cancer.
Merck & Co. Inc. is getting the exclusive, global rights from Orion Corp. to develop the oral prostate therapy, ODM-208, which the two companies hammered out a deal for in 2022. Orion could now bring in up to $30 million in development milestones, as much as $625 million in regulatory milestone payments, and up to $975 million in sales-based milestones. The deal adds up to $1.6 billion for Espoo, Finland-based Orion. Orion, which has a number of other deals with other companies, could also receive annually tiered royalty payments ranging from a low double-digit rate up to a rate in the low 20s on net sales for any commercialized licensed product.
Yuhan Corp., of Seoul, South Korea, has inked a ₩150 billion (US$108.6 million) deal with Korean biotech Ubix Therapeutics Inc. to gain exclusive global rights to UBX-103, Ubix’s oral small-molecule androgen receptor degrader for prostate cancer. Yuhan also announced July 1 that it gained the U.S. FDA’s nod to start a phase I study of a Gaucher disease drug candidate called YH-35995.
Uppthera Inc. has described proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) compounds comprising an E3 ubiquitin ligase-binding moiety coupled to a serine/threonine-protein kinase PLK1 (STPK13) targeting moiety through a linker. They are reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer and neurological disorders.
Scientists at RMW Cho Group Ltd. and Venner Shipley LLP have divulged chlorin K derivatives acting as photosensitizers reported to be used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photodynamic diagnosis of cancer.
Scientists at Aten Porus Lifesciences Pvt Ltd. and Avammune Therapeutics Inc. have synthesized double-stranded RNA-specific adenosine deaminase (ADAR; ADAR1; IFI-4) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Di’ao Group Chengdu Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. has disclosed DNA-directed RNA polymerase, mitochondrial (POLRMT; MtRPOL) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
RSS
