Privately held F-star Therapeutics Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have completed their third license agreement, one that could bring F-star about $1 billion. The new collaboration is focused on R&D against undisclosed cancer targets.
Both the value and number of reported biopharma nonprofit deals has fallen significantly, being at the lowest amount in the past five years. Compared to the first five months of last year, the value of biopharma nonprofit deals has decreased by about 63%. Meanwhile, money raised via grants has fallen slightly, 6.11%, but is vastly less than the value and number seen in 2020.
Just over a month after scoring U.S. FDA clearance for dry eye disease therapy Miebo (perfluorohexyloctane), Bausch + Lomb Corp. is adding Xiidra (lifitegrast) to its arsenal in the same indication as part of the potential $2.5 billion deal with Novartis AG, which is divesting its “front-of-eye” ophthalmology assets.
More evidence of big pharma’s interest in type 1 diabetes (T1D) arose as Eli Lilly and Co. disclosed its plan to buy encapsulated-cell-therapy collaborator Sigilon Therapeutics Inc., bringing aboard SIG-002, the early-stage drug on which the pair has been working since 2018. The news blasted upward shares of Cambridge, Mass.-based Sigilon (NASDAQ:SGTX), which closed June 29 at $21.15, up $17.24, or 441%.
Shionogi & Co. Ltd.’s U.S. subsidiary Shinogi Inc. will acquire San Diego-based Qpex Biopharma Inc. in a deal worth up to $140 million that expands Shionogi’s pipeline of infectious disease agents and also adds to Brii Biosciences Ltd.’s pipeline.
The U.S. FTC picked up six allies in its unprecedented effort to stop Amgen Inc.’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc, as the attorneys general for California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Washington and Wisconsin joined the agency in signing onto an amended complaint filed under seal June 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Aslan Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd. said it inked a licensing deal with Zenyaku Kogyo Co. Ltd. for its atopic dermatitis-targeting monoclonal antibody, eblasakimab, that could reach $138.5 million in up-front and milestone payments.
Less than two years old, Tourmaline Bio Inc. is gaining a public listing through a reverse merger with publicly traded Talaris Therapeutics Inc., as it enters a phase IIb with its lead IL-6 inhibitor for thyroid eye disease (TED).
Just over a month after expressing “substantial doubt that the company can continue as a going concern,” Aeglea Biotherapeutics Inc. came back from the brink with a deal to take over Spyre Therapeutics Inc. in a stock-for-stock transaction, signed concurrently with an agreement to raise $210 million via the sale of series A preferred shares.
Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. will acquire Lightpoint Medical Ltd. in a $35 million deal that will expand its urology pipeline and bring in house a new surgery-focused unit. Under the terms of the deal, Telix of Melbourne, Australia, will pay Lightpoint $20 million up front and a further $15 million on achievement of certain development milestones. The up-front payment will be paid in equity, and the additional milestones will be payable in cash or equity, at Telix’s election.
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