With less uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, the biopharma industry appears on track to shift efforts back to its internal programs and possibly meet, if not exceed, the record-breaking deal level of 2020. Strong financial markets, however, may continue to hold M&As down.
LONDON – DNA damage response (DDR) specialist Artios Pharma Ltd. has signed a potential $1.3 billion deal to apply its technology to discover drugs that will work in combination with Novartis AG’s radioligand therapies.
Full rights to TAK-169, a CD38-targeted engineered toxin body that Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. and Molecular Templates Inc. have been developing, are going to Molecular Templates as is the therapy’s clinical development.
Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to pay up to $780 million in up-front, milestone payments and R&D funding for exclusive rights to antiviral conjugates to be developed by Cidara Therapeutics Inc. for the prevention and treatment of seasonal and pandemic influenza.
Lianbio Co. Ltd. has inked a $200 million deal with Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc. for greater China rights to the phase IIb/III-stage candidate, TP-03 (lotilaner ophthalmic solution, 0.25%), designed to treat Demodex blepharitis and Meibomian gland disease.
Marking its second acquisition this year after snapping up cancer-focused Five Prime Therapeutics Inc., Amgen Inc. is adding to its inflammatory disease portfolio through the purchase of Seattle-based Rodeo Therapeutics Corp. The deal includes $55 million up front for the private company's shareholders, plus contingent milestone payments worth up to an additional $666 million. Rodeo's lead preclinical program targets 15-prostaglandin dehydrogenase to increase tissue levels of prostaglandin PGE2.
LONDON – Bridgebio Inc. has made a huge turn on the initial $65 million it invested in 2018 to acquire rights to infigratinib from Novartis AG, sealing a $2 billion commercialization deal with Swiss oncology specialist Helsinn Group for the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor just four years later. Helsinn will work with Bridgebio affiliate QED Therapeutics Inc. on U.S. co-commercialization of infigratinib in oncology and all other indications apart from skeletal dysplasias, with profits and losses shared on a 50-50 basis.
Bridgene Biosciences Inc., a company using an in-house chemoproteomic platform to find and develop small molecules for hard-to-drug targets, has signed its first major pharma partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. for an undisclosed up-front payment.
HONG KONG – Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is celebrating its 100th anniversary by inking a collaboration and licensing agreement with Perception Neuroscience LLC to develop and commercialize the latter’s PCN-101 (r-ketamine) in Japan. The treatment targets mood disorders such as major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Perception is also developing PCN-101 to treat TRD outside Japan.
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