Shionogi & Co. said it plans to acquire Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) subsidiaries Torii Pharmaceutical Co. and Akros Pharma Inc. for ¥160 billion (US$1.1 billion) to expand its global R&D business. The two companies have been negotiating since early 2024, and the deal is structured such that a tender offer will begin on May 8 and end on June 18 with an offer price of ¥6,350 per share to buy at least 11.89% of the minority stake, JT told BioWorld.
South Korean government and biopharmaceutical industry representatives urged American policymakers May 7 to refrain from imposing tariffs on pharmaceutical imports, and to spare allies if pharma tariffs are deemed necessary. Both Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare on May 4 and the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization on May 6 submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Commerce in response to its ongoing investigation of pharmaceutical imports.
Nuevocor Pte. Ltd. has closed a $45 million series B, enabling it to move lead gene therapy NVC-001 into the clinic in the treatment of an inherited form of cardiomyopathy.
Innovent Biologics Inc.’s efdamrofusp alfa (IBI-302) met the primary endpoint in phase II, showing a gain of 10 or more letters in visual acuity from baseline at one year in Chinese patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration.
Australian biopharma stakeholders welcomed the reelection of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who promised to expand Medicare and to invest more in Australian research.
Immutep Ltd. announced strong median overall survival of 17.6 months in cohort B of the TACTI-003 (Keynote-PNC-34) phase IIb trial that evaluated eftilagimod alfa in combination with Merck & Co.’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as first-line therapy in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in patients with PD-L1 expression below 1.
Echoing President Donald Trump’s justification for reciprocal tariffs, the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual Special 301 Report is a bit more aggressive in tone this year as it calls out trading partners that don't adequately enforce intellectual property rights or that otherwise discriminate against products from foreign companies.
Among three Korean biotech companies slated to sell shares on the Korea Exchange this month, Immuneoncia Therapeutics Inc. is the latest to price a ₩33.9 billion (US$24 million) Kosdaq IPO for May 19. Regenerative cell therapy maker Organoid Sciences Ltd. and antibody-drug conjugate specialist Intocell Inc. are also gearing up for respective Kosdaq listings starting next week.
Dimerix Ltd. sealed an exclusive license agreement with Amicus Therapeutics Inc. for commercialization of its phase III kidney disease candidate, DMX-200, in a deal valued at AU$940 million (US$601.22 million).
South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved 18 biosimilar products in 2024, making it a record year for domestic biosimilar approvals since the agency’s first nod of Celltrion Inc.’s Remsima, a reference product of Remicade (infliximab), in 2012.
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