Innovacell Inc. launched a ¥14.16 billion (US$91.2 million) stock sale on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Feb. 24, ending a near two-year lull of biotech listings in Japan while signaling a dynamic year ahead for cell-based therapeutics.

Shionogi & Co. Ltd. will acquire global rights to U.S. FDA approved amyotrophic lateral sclerosis therapy edaravone through a $2.5 billion acquisition deal with Tanabe Pharma Corp. Under the terms, Tanabe will form a new entity harboring both oral and intravenous (I.V.) infusion formulations of edaravone that are marketed in the U.S. as Radicava ORS and I.V. Radicava.

ADEL Inc. closed a year-end licensing deal worth up to $1.04 billion with Sanofi SA for ADEL-Y01, a specific tau-targeting Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate in a U.S. phase I study.

Formation Bio Inc. acquired ex-China rights to Lynk Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s oral TYK2-inhibitor, LNK-01006, for up to $605 million. The phase I-ready central nervous system (CNS) candidate will be developed at Formation’s newly formed subsidiary, Bleecker Bio.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), formerly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder with no known cure. While three therapies have gained U.S. FDA approvals to date, including Rilutek (riluzole), Radicava/Radicava ORS (edaravone) and tofersen (BIIB-067, the lack of a disease-modifying drug has spurred the continual search for novel therapies.

Ribomic’s umedaptanib pegol (RBM-007) looks to have some advantages compared to competitors in the achondroplasia space, and the company plans to progress the oligonucleotide-based aptamer that targets anti fibroblast growth factor 2 to phase III trials, Ribomic’s business development head, Kihei Yamashita, told BioWorld.

Alterity Therapeutics Ltd. helped develop a new neuroimaging biomarker called the multiple system atrophy index (MSA-AI), which looks to be a more reliable biomarker for tracking disease progression of MSA.

In yet another fail for the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) field, Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s pizuglanstat (TAS-205) did not meet the primary endpoint in a phase III trial. The phase III Reach-DMD trial, a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind and open-label, extension study of pizuglanstat in patients with DMD showed no significant difference in the mean change from baseline to 52 weeks in the primary endpoint of time to rise from the floor in the ambulatory cohort of the study.

Just a month after laying off 147 employees and announcing plans to mull “strategic alternatives,” Vor Biopharma Inc. reported raising $175 million in private placement in public equity financing and inking a new $4.23 billion license deal for Yantai Rongchang Biotechnologies (Remegen) Co. Ltd.’s telitacicept, a dual-target fusion protein drug approved in China for three autoimmune indications. The news was disclosed after U.S. market hours June 25. Vor’s shares (NASDAQ:VOR) gained 34 cents, or 60.5%, to close June 26 at 89 cents. The company’s shares had risen for eight consecutive trading days since June 17.