Shionogi & Co. Ltd. has entered into an option agreement with Cilcare Dev SAS to acquire the exclusive license for the global development, manufacturing and commercialization of hearing loss treatment drug candidates CIL-001 and/or CIL-003.
Abtis Co. Ltd., Dong-A ST’s newly incorporated subsidiary since December 2023, is making headway with its leading Claudin18.2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate, AT-211, according to Abtis CEO Taedong Han. “About 80% of gastric cancers do not have HER2 overexpression, but 77% overexpressed Claudin18.2,” Han told Bio Korea 2024 audience members on May 9, stressing that AT-211 was found to be highly potent against cancer cells expressing Claudin18.2 in ADC cell viability studies.
South Korea’s Genome & Co. Ltd. (KOSDAQ:314130) shares rose nearly 30% June 3 after it disclosed a potential ₩586.38 billion (US$426 million) licensing deal for its novel antibody-drug conjugate candidate with Switzerland’s Debiopharm International SA.
China’s Medilink Therapeutics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. and Germany’s Biontech SE signed another potential $1 billion-plus deal for novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targets, building off the first ADC-based licensing deal from last year.
Miami-headquartered Summit Therapeutics Inc. expanded rights to Akeso Inc.’s non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) drug, ivonescimab (SMT-112; AK-112), June 3 while raising $200 million to advance the therapy.
Cambridge, U.K.-based Astrazeneca plc is looking to Asia, specifically China and Singapore, to build an innovative cancer-focused pipeline filled with antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and cell therapies.
Japanese industrial conglomerate Asahi Kasei Corp. has made an offer to acquire Swedish rare diseases specialist Calliditas Therapeutics AB for SEK11.8 billion (US$1.1 billion). The offer, at an 83% premium to the closing share price of SEK113.60 on Monday, May 27, is recommended by the three biggest shareholders and the board of Calliditas, which said the company would benefit from “being part of a larger platform.”
Shanghai- and San Diego-based Degron Therapeutics Inc. secured a potential $1.2 billion deal with Tokyo-headquartered Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. May 23 for a multitarget collaboration and exclusive licensing agreement for molecular glue degraders. “It is a breakthrough technology in the small-molecule drug discovery field,” Degron CEO Lily Zou told BioWorld. “People talk about cell and gene therapy, but small molecules are still the mainstream of drug discovery, [with] more reach.”
Théa Open Innovation, a subsidiary of France’s Laboratoires Théa SAS, returned rights to South Korea’s Curacle Co. Ltd.’s CU-06, an oral diabetic macular edema drug candidate. Curacle posted positive top-line phase IIa data of CU-06 just three months prior.
To strengthen its cancer pipeline, South Korea’s Dong-A ST Co. Ltd. made a strategic investment of ₩25 billion (US$18.45 million) in Seocho-gu, Seoul-based Idience Co. Ltd., a cancer-focused subsidiary of Ildong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. on May 20.
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