Roche Holding AG kicked off the new year (again) with a potential $1 billion deal, including $80 million up front, for exclusive rights to Innovent Biologics Inc.’s IBI-3009, a DLL3-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate that recently entered a phase I study.
In a deal worth up to $1 billion, Ideaya Biosciences Inc. is in-licensing Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s SHR-4849, a phase I DLL3-targeting opo-I-payload antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Under terms of the deal, San Francisco-based Ideaya will develop and commercialize SHR-4849 worldwide outside of greater China, and Shanghai-based Hengrui is eligible to receive up to $1.04 billion that includes a $75 million up-front fee, $200 million in development and regulatory milestone payments, and commercial success-based milestone payments. Hengrui is also eligible to receive royalties on net sales outside of greater China.
At Bio Japan 2024, policymakers and industry leaders pledged to make Japan a land of drug discovery to attract native and foreign drug developers. Like many Asian countries, Japan is harnessing and prioritizing the bio sector to drive economic growth, throwing its weight behind its 10-year Bioeconomy initiative to create bioclusters and increase investment.
Sangamo Therapeutics Inc.’s stock sank sharply on the last day of 2025 as Pfizer Inc. handed back the rights to their collaborative gene therapy hemophilia A program. While it was another big loss to Sangamo, which had seen two other major deals fall through in the past two years, the company still has two large collaborations in development.
From local drug discovery to global innovation, economic uncertainty is taking a toll on China’s innovative biotech system, forcing local companies to weather unpredictable storms, investors said during the Chinabio Partnering Forum in Shanghai in September.
In a deal worth up to $1 billion, Ideaya Biosciences Inc. is in-licensing Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s SHR-4849, a phase I DLL3-targeting opo-I-payload antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Under terms of the deal, San Francisco-based Ideaya will develop and commercialize SHR-4849 worldwide outside of greater China, and Shanghai-based Hengrui is eligible to receive up to $1.04 billion that includes a $75 million up-front fee, $200 million in development and regulatory milestone payments, and commercial success-based milestone payments. Hengrui is also eligible to receive royalties on net sales outside of greater China.
Certa Therapeutics Pty Ltd. has acquired Occurx Pty Ltd. in a move to strengthen its pipeline to target multiple fibrotic diseases as both companies share a focus on targeting GPR68, a defined G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) receptor that mediates signaling pathways associated with inflammation and fibrosis and is thought to be a master switch of fibrosis.
Kaken Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s license agreement with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)6 inhibitor KP-723 could presage further deals in STAT6, where a number of developers are active. Kaken’s arrangement with J&J involves the global development, manufacturing and sale of KP-723, which has reached the preclinical stage. Tokyo-based Kaken will take the drug through phase I trials, after which J&J takes over.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. won €50 million (₩75.5 billion, US$52.03 million) up front from Sanofi SA to expand an earlier agreement to develop and commercialize novel pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). The first deal resulted in GBP-410 (SP-0202), its pediatric 21-valent PCV candidate that moved into phase III study last week.
In a deal worth $100 million up front and up to $1.25 billion in milestone payments, Bioarctic AB licensed its pyroglutamate-amyloid-β (pyroglutamate-Aβ) antibody program to Bristol Myers Squibb Co. to advance treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
RSS
