Merck & Co. Inc. is buying Cidara Therapeutics Inc. for $9.2 billion to acquire a late-stage flu candidate and also to outrace blockbuster Keytruda’s looming patent expiration. CD-388, Cidara’s lead candidate, is in a phase III study of adolescents and adults for preventing influenza A and B in those who are at a high risk of developing complications.
The pricier offer by Lundbeck A/S for Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc – which follows last month’s agreement for a takeover by Alkermes plc – had Wall Street buzzing as pundits weighed the odds for each suitor.
A year ago, BioWorld published a special series on the women’s health drug development ecosystem, showing that while women make up half of the population, venture capital investment and life sciences partnerships in the space – specifically those deals supporting innovations for conditions primarily affecting women – pale in comparison to efforts addressing diseases more men experience. That appears to be changing, according to an updated look of BioWorld data, supported by findings in the Silicon Valley Bank 2025 Innovation in Women’s Health Report published in April, and Clarivate’s Nov. 13 release of its latest Companies to Watch 2025 report, Rediscovering women’s health.
ABL Bio Inc. inked a license and research agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. worth up to $2.6 billion to develop multiple therapeutics using the Grabody-B platform. Under the terms announced Nov. 12, ABL will receive a $40 million up-front payment and up to $2.56 billion in development, regulatory and commercialization milestones, plus tiered royalties on net sales.
Laekna Inc. outlicensed select rights to LAE-002 (afuresertib), an oral pan-AKT kinase inhibitor licensed from Novartis AG in 2018, to Qilu Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. under a potential ¥2.045 billion (US$287.23 million) deal.
In a deal worth $1.2 billion, Suzhou Sanegene Bio Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co. are partnering to advance RNAi candidates for metabolic diseases based on Sanegene's tissue selective delivery technology.
Pfizer Inc. emerged over the weekend as the winner of the bidding war for Metsera Inc., with the two reaching an amended agreement after market close Nov. 7 that values the obesity drugmaker at about $10 billion. The next day, the other contender, Novo Nordisk A/S, confirmed it does not intend to increase its most recent offer.
CEO Lynn Seely said Lyell Immunopharma Inc. is going “full steam ahead” with development of rondecabtagene autoleucel (ronde-cel, also known as LYL-314) amid the excitement of the firm’s latest news: the buy of global rights to LYL-273, an autologous guanylyl cyclase-C-targeted CAR T-cell candidate for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), from Innovative Cellular Therapeutics Inc. (ICT) for an up-front payment of $40 million and 1.9 million shares of Lyell common stock.
Celltrion Inc. scored a hat-trick of deals to license new antibody candidates, including a $744 million deal with Kaigene Inc. Nov. 3, and a near $500 million deal with Mustbio Co. Ltd. Oct. 31.
Transthera Sciences Inc. is out-licensing one of its preclinical NLRP3 inhibitors to Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. under a collaboration agreement worth $881.5 million. Under deal terms, Nanjing, China-based Transthera will receive an undisclosed up-front payment and is eligible to receive research and development and sales-based milestone payments up to $881.5 million.
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