Following an FDA priority review, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s oral antiviral, maribavir, has won U.S. approval as the first drug in the country to treat resistant cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease in adult and pediatric transplant recipients. The drug will be marketed as Livtencity.
Zenas Biopharma LLC in-licensed the global right to develop, manufacture, and commercialize the antibody obexelimab from Xencor Inc. to treat autoimmune diseases in a deal worth up to $480 million. Under the agreement, Monrovia, Calif.-based Xencor gained the rights to acquire additional shares in U.S. and China-based Zenas, which will bring its total equity up to 15%.
Bright Peak Therapeutics Inc. has licensed rights to use Livzon Mabpharm Inc.’s anti-PD-1 candidate, LZM-009, to develop its own PD-1 targeted immunocytokines (PD-1 ICs). Bertolt Kreft, chief scientific officer for Bright Peak, told BioWorld that Livzon’s phase II anti-PD-1 “exhibits a promising initial safety and efficacy profile, making it well-suited to the task.
Immune system B cells secrete the neurotransmitter gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA), which promotes generation of anti-inflammatory macrophages and blunts the cytotoxic T cell-based response to tumors in mice.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has completed a $20 million equity investment in Compugen Ltd., part of an ongoing expansion a collaboration between the companies to combine their medicines for the potential benefit of patients with solid tumors.
PERTH, Australia – Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd. raised AU$50 million (US$36.4 million) in an oversubscribed IPO to advance its platform of radiopharmaceutical products for both diagnostic and therapeutic uses.
A Chinese patent covering methods and compositions for the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in eukaryotes has been granted to Dublin-based Ers Genomics Ltd., making what Michael Arciero, vice president of intellectual property and commercial development at the company, called “a strong but not surprising statement by China,” which has made the biotechnology industry one of its top national priorities.
Sotio Biotech AS has licensed Legochem Biosciences Inc.’s technology for five new antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) in a deal that could bring the latter over $1 billion. Prague, Czech Republic-based Sotio will have the rights to deploy Legochem’s Conjuall and potent linker-payload platform, including multiple different payloads, for five therapeutic programs targeting solid tumors and combine its proprietary antibodies with it.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has agreed to provide Clover Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. with an additional $36.9 million to support development of SCB-2019, a recombinant trimeric Spike-protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine.
Top-line results of Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd.’s phase III Quantum-First study, testing the addition of quizartinib to chemotherapy vs. chemotherapy alone for adults with newly diagnosed FLT3-ITD positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML), found the combination therapy provided a “statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement” in overall survival vs. standard treatment alone, meeting the trial’s primary endpoint, Ken Takeshita, global head of R&D at Daiichi Sankyo, told BioWorld.
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