Bold up-fronts and even bigger milestones defined ambitious neurology deals Abbvie Inc. struck with Voyager Therapeutics Inc. in 2018 and 2019. With vectorized antibodies, they planned to target multiple indications tied to excess aggregations of tau and tragic synucleinopathies. Considerable progress was made, said Omar Khwaja, Voyager's chief medical officer. But despite millions of dollars invested in the programs, Abbvie has now decided to quit the venture, leaving Voyager to either go it alone or find a new partner in its work on the challenging indications.
LONDON – Redx Pharma plc is in the process of handing its RXC-006 program over to Astrazeneca plc, after signing a potential $377 million development and commercialization deal for the porcupine inhibitor in the treatment of fibrotic disease.
Nanjing, China-based Simcere Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. became the second Chinese player to seek assets from G1 Therapeutics Inc., of Research Park Triangle, N.C., this year. On Tuesday, it licensed trilaciclib, an intravenous CDK4/6 inhibitor, from G1 Therapeutics in a $170 million deal for Greater China rights.
In deals worth billions, Sanofi SA and Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK) have made new agreements this week to supply the U.S. and U.K. governments with a COVID-19 vaccine. The two companies also are in advanced discussions with the European Union to supply up to 300 million doses of a vaccine.
Sangamo Therapeutics Inc. continued its collaboration spree, signing up its sixth big pharma/biotech partner: Novartis AG. The three-target deal will use Sangamo's zinc finger protein transcription factors to up-regulate undisclosed genes to treat autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
In a move that Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. chief Lonnel Coats said will focus the company on its phase II neuropathic pain program, The Woodlands, Texas-based venture has agreed to sell one of its two approved products, the carcinoid syndrome diarrhea therapy Xermelo (telotristat ethyl), to Tersera Therapeutics LLC for $159 million in cash.
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.
HONG KONG - California-based Iacta Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Hong Kong-based Zhaoke Ophthalmology Pharmaceutical Ltd. have inked a definitive license agreement for two of Iacta’s products.
Terns Pharmaceuticals Inc., a NASH specialist based in San Francisco and Shanghai, has out-licensed the Greater China rights of its BCR-ABL inhibitor, TRN-000632, for treating chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) to Chinese pharma giant Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. to move the preclinical oncology asset to the clinic faster.
UCB SA, a Belgian company developing an antibody targeting a toxic protein tied to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), said Roche Holding AG has negotiated an exclusive global license to the potential therapy for $120 million up front, plus almost $2 billion in milestone payments following positive proof of concept for the anti-tau candidate, UCB-0107, in AD.
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