Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, and other news in brief: Abbvie, Chugai, Gilead, Gilgamesh, Hansoh, I-Mab, Kite, Novabridge, Pregene, Rani, Roche, Vectus, Xortx.
Clinical updates, including data readouts and publications: AB, Agenus, Aicuris, Astrazeneca, Catalym, Eli Lilly, Evaxion, Helsinn, Marengo, Novartis, Sensei, Tolremo and Viiv.
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Rani Therapeutics LLC have entered into a collaboration and global license agreement to develop and commercialize an oral product that encompasses Rani’s oral delivery technology, the Ranipill, and Chugai’s rare disease antibody in development.
Despite a recent stock surge, Olema Oncology Inc. shares (NASDAQ:OLMA) slipped 17% on Oct. 20 to close at $7.77 each in the wake of updated and positive phase Ib/II results for palazestrant, the company’s metastatic breast cancer drug.
The 2025 Annual Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) featured a track on tumor-agnostic therapies – the first time such a track has been included at ESMO, or at any major medical oncology meeting. “It’s a milestone,” Vivek Subbiah told the audience at a session on how to accelerate tumor-agnostic drug development.
Much-awaited detailed data from Exelixis Inc.’s phase III Stellar-303 study of zanzalintinib, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting, showed the third-generation, oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor in combination with Tecentriq (atezolizumab, Roche AG) reduced the risk of death by 20% vs. Stivarga (regorafenib, Bayer AG) in patients with previously treated non-microsatellite instability (MSI)-high metastatic colorectal cancer and are expected to pave the way for an NDA filing later this year.