Relation Therapeutics Ltd. will collaborate with Novartis AG in a $1.7 billion deal to develop multiple programs to find and advance targets for treating atopic diseases caused by immune dysregulation. Novartis will pay Relation an up-front amount, an equity investment and R&D funding of $55 million. It’s the company’s second deal with big pharma in the past 12 months.
Bao Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., a developer of subcutaneous biologic drugs, priced its IPO at HK$26.38 on Dec. 2, aiming to raise about HK$1 billion (US$128 million). Bao expects net proceeds of HK$921.5 million after expenses, which will fund its “two-anti” strategy – developing both antibody and antibiotic drugs worldwide, mainly in China, the U.S. and Europe.
China’s National Medical Products Administration gave the nod to Innovent Biologics Inc.’s picankibart (IBI-112), branded as Pecondle, for treating moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults who are candidates for systemic therapy.
2025 has been the most challenging year in the efforts to fight HIV since at least the advent of antiretroviral therapy. In a report on “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response,” released last week ahead of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) described “a global system in shock” by sharply reduced funding from the U.S. and other wealthy nations. Scientifically, for now, progress is ongoing. To mark World AIDS Day, Nature published three independent studies on HIV.
The priority BLA from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and its U.S. subsidiary, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization Inc., for sibeprenlimab to treat immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) has received accelerated approved by the U.S. FDA.
Novo Nordisk A/S’ wild card bet that its GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide could be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease has not paid off, with the company reporting two phase III trials have shown no effect on slowing disease progression.
Contineum Therapeutics Inc.’s midstage study of its multiple sclerosis drug, PIPE-307, missed its primary and secondary endpoints, dropping the stock on Nov. 21. Top-line phase II results from the Vista study of the M1 receptor agonist PIPE-307 for treating relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis saw no significant changes in binocular 2.5% low contrast letter acuity in the treatment arms, a key efficacy measure.
Harbour Biomed is stepping up its antibody discovery process by using AI to develop innovative therapeutics. “We have done great through the traditional way of generating leads and designing molecules, but there’s a major gap as some therapeutics cannot reach the desired location or common targets,” Harbour Biomed founder, chairman and CEO Jingsong Wang told BioWorld.
By transplanting a pig kidney into a brain-dead person, researchers have been able to conduct the first long-term study of the physiological processes occurring in both the transplant recipient and the pig organ for 61 days. The findings were published in the Nov. 14, 2025, issue of Nature in two papers – one focusing on physiological and immunological measurements, the other on multiomics.
Fifteen years since the first patient was treated, and after being ditched by two companies, the EMA is recommending approval of Waskyra (etuvetidigene autotemcel), the first gene therapy for treating Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome.
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