By combining synthetic biology and RNA therapy, the team at startup Strand Therapeutics Inc. hopes to make mRNA therapy more effective. Strand recently announced an immuno-oncology deal with Beigene Ltd. that netted the company $5 million to begin with and could end up being worth more than $250 million. Beyond immuno-oncology, the company’s basic technology could be broadly useful for both mRNA- and cell-based therapies.
Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd. could receive an aggregate $1.1 billion from Coherus Biosciences Inc. for the rights to develop and commercialize Junshi’s anti-PD-1 antibody toripalimab in the U.S. and Canada. The deal is powered by Coherus’ core biosimilar business and is designed to steer the company into the business of immuno-oncology.
DUBLIN – Merus NV is banking $40 million up front, plus an equity investment of $20 million, under a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Co.’s Loxo Oncology arm to develop up to three CD3-directed bispecific T-cell engager antibodies. Each program also has up to $540 million attached in development and commercialization milestones, taking the total potential value of the deal to $1.68 billion. Merus would also receive tiered royalties on any product sales, ranging, in percentage terms, from mid-single-digits to low-double-digits.
Dublin – IO Biotech ApS raised €127 million (US$154.7 million) in a series B round to fund a potentially pivotal trial of its combination of cancer vaccines in first-line metastatic melanoma. The Copenhagen, Denmark-based company is one of a number of firms fueling a mini-resurgence in immuno-oncology in the early weeks of the new year, as new data and new insights are prompting additional investments in an area that some had thought was already oversubscribed.
Trillium Therapeutics Inc. is playing a hot hand. The immuno-oncology company followed recently revealed positive data from two dose-escalation phase I studies targeting CD47 by pulling down a $25 million equity investment from Pfizer Inc. Now the company has priced a $130 million underwritten public offering of 10 million common shares at $13 each.
HONG KONG – Following FDA approval of its IND, Israel-based Kahr Medical Ltd. is set to start a phase I/II trial of lead product DSP-107, a second-generation CD47- and 41BB-targeting compound. The move puts Kahr among a number of companies working on drugs against checkpoint molecule CD47.
LONDON – Privately held U.K. biotech F-star Therapeutics Ltd. is gaining a Nasdaq listing via a reverse merger with Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals Inc., with F-star’s shareholders due to own 61% of the new entity, to be named F-star Therapeutics Inc.
LONDON – Swiss startup T3 Pharma AG has raised CHF25 million (US$26.7 million) in a series C round, to fund a 100-patient phase I/II study of its live bacteria cancer immunotherapy.
Novocure Ltd. and Merck & Co. Inc. will work together to test the use of electric fields at specific frequencies in combination with anti-PD-1 immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) to treat non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The pair plan to start a phase II pilot study during the second half of Novocure’s Tumor Treating Fields in combination with Keytruda as a first-line treatment for intrathoracic advanced or metastatic, PD-L1 positive NSCLC.
Gilead Sciences Inc. has acquired a 49.9% equity interest in privately held Pionyr Immunotherapeutics Inc., which could receive up to $1.15 billion in potential future milestone payments in the deal.
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