The U.S. FTC’s antitrust challenge to Amgen Inc.’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc has been resolved. Amgen agreed to do what it said it would do all along: not bundle pharmacy benefit manager rebates on high volume blockbuster drugs Tepezza and Krystexxa.
Zevra Therapeutics Inc. will acquire Acer Therapeutics Inc. in a $91 million deal that combines two companies with expertise in rare diseases. Acer has struggled since its hot flash drug, ACER-801 (osanetant), failed to hit statistical significance in a phase IIa proof-of-concept study in March 2023. The stumble came amidst the launch of Acer’s Olpruva, a sodium phenylbutyrate for oral suspension therapy approved by the U.S. FDA in late December 2022 for treating urea cycle disorders. The day before the Zevra merger was announced, Acer reacquired the worldwide development, commercialization and economic rights to Olpruva from its development partner, Relief Therapeutics Inc.
Verastem Oncology Inc. and Genfleet Therapeutics Ltd. have inked a discovery and development deal to advance three oncology discovery programs targeting RAS pathway-driven cancers.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. and Vaxxas Pty. Ltd. have entered into a joint development agreement that could revolutionize vaccines by developing a vaccine-delivery device combination product using Vaxxas’ high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) coupled with SK Bioscience’s typhoid vaccine, Skytyphoid.
The first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger announced in 2023 has fallen apart. Aprinoia Therapeutics Inc. and Ross Acquisition Corp. II mutually agreed to call off the merger that had been valued at $280 million. The failed deal is part of a larger trend that has gained momentum in the past year as a struggling economy and tighter U.S. SEC restrictions dampened SPAC deals.
Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S has struck a deal with Royalty Pharma for $500 million, capital it plans to plough into achieving a successful launch of its approved bladder cancer gene therapy, Adstiladrin (nadofaragene firadenovec), in the U.S., as well as enabling it to upgrade and expand its manufacturing sites.
The COVID-19 pandemic might be officially over, but future variants could still pose a threat, and serious health consequences of the causative virus continue to arise, a fact that has prompted the U.S. government to offer Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. about $326 million to develop and manufacture a next-generation COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy.
Verismo Therapeutics Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s HLB Co. Ltd., inked a license agreement with the University of Pennsylvania for two newly discovered CD19 binders – one of which will be used to develop Synkir-310, its investigative CAR T therapy for blood cancers.
South Korea’s Celltrion Inc. is rolling out a tweaked plan to merge its three affiliates – electing for a two-way merger followed by consolidation with the final branch – in its latest efforts to rise through the ranks and emerge as a “true” big pharma.
With a U.S. biotech identified as One Bio, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has inked an out-licensing deal potentially worth $1.05 billion for its asthma and chronic sinusitis-targeting drug, SHR-1905. The latest deal gives One Bio exclusive rights to develop, produce and commercialize SHR-1905 worldwide, excluding the greater China territory.
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