Weeks after raising an oversubscribed $60 million series A, Affinia Therapeutics Inc., of Waltham, Mass., is collaborating with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a far larger deal, one potentially worth more than $1.6 billion.
HONG KONG – Not even the 9,500 kilometers between Cambridge, U.K., and Tokyo, or the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, could prevent Japan’s Astellas Pharma Inc. from completing its acquisition of Cambridge-based Nanna Therapeutics Ltd. in a £12 million (US$14.78 million) deal.
Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. has struck an agreement with privately held Navitor Pharmaceuticals Inc. to run a joint phase II program for Navitor's mTORC1 activator, NV-5138, in treatment-resistant depression (TRD).
BEIJING – Nanobody startup Sysvax Inc., with its R&D center in Beijing and manufacturing facilities in Zhongshan, is developing a recombinant protein vaccine and a nanobody therapeutic for COVID-19, while trying to extend the half-life of potential COVID-19 treatments with its expertise in this smallest possible antibody format.
Privately held Memgen LLC and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center agreed to technology licensing agreements covering intellectual property the two jointly developed. The deal includes MEM-288, Memgen’s lead candidate, which the company said exhibits significantly enhanced selectivity and activity against a range of tumor types.
HONG KONG - South Korean biopharma Legochem Biosciences Inc. has partnered with the U.K.’s Iksuda Therapeutics Ltd. to develop oncological antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). Under the global research collaboration and license agreement, Legochem is set to rake in up to $407 million from development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, as well as royalties on the sales of any resulting ADC products.
HONG KONG – Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co. Ltd. and Nagoya Institute of Technology have kicked off research on a joint project for a gene therapy that could be applied to the restoration of vision.
Leo Pharma A/S, of Ballerup, Denmark, has eyed a stronger company presence in Asia during the past year and took a giant step to achieving it by signing a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with Oneness Biotech Co. Ltd., of Taipei, Taiwan, and Microbio Shanghai Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize FB-825 for treating atopic dermatitis and allergic asthma.
Less than a year after backing Tscan Therapeutics Inc.'s $48 million series B round, Novartis AG is tapping the Waltham, Mass.-based company to discover and develop new T-cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T-cell therapies for up to three new solid tumor targets. The collaboration includes an up-front technology access fee and research funding totaling $30 million, as well as potential clinical, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments that could total hundreds of millions of dollars, Tscan said.
Arriving at MEI Pharma Inc.’s deal with Kyowa Kirin Co. Ltd., focused on phase II-stage ME-401 for B-cell malignancies, was a competitive process that brought large and midsized pharma bidders to the table, MEI Chief Operating Officer David Urso said, but the terms proposed by suitors tended to “look a lot the same.”
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