DUBLIN – Shareholders in Galapagos NV enjoyed an 18 percent stock uptick Wednesday as filgotinib, the company's blockbuster-in-waiting, aced the first of three phase III trials in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and whetted appetites for further phase III read-outs over the next nine months. Its partner, Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif., also traded up, by about 3 percent. That represents a combined valuation increase of about $3.5 billion across the two companies.
DUBLIN – Zealand Pharma A/S is walking away from its longstanding alliance with Sanofi SA in type 2 diabetes by selling off future income streams from lixisenatide, the glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist it discovered, to Royalty Pharma in a $205 million cash deal. Royalty, of New York, will receive sales royalties and potentially $85 million in future milestones from Paris-based Sanofi, although Copenhagen, Denmark-based Zealand will remain eligible for a final payment of up to $15 million, which it expects to receive in 2020. The trigger for that payment has not been disclosed.
DUBLIN – A series of eye-catching papers on parabiosis experiments in mice, which identified a circulating protein that reverses aging-related tissue degeneration, has led to the formation of a new Harvard University spin-out, Elevian Inc., which has just closed a seed round of $5.5 million.
DUBLIN – Shares in Abivax SA rose as much as 20 percent Tuesday on preliminary phase IIa proof-of-concept data for its lead drug candidate, ABX-464, in ulcerative colitis. The same molecule is already in development for targeting reservoirs of infection that persist in HIV patients on highly active retroviral therapy, but its anti-inflammatory mechanism, whose effects include up-regulating MIR124, an anti-inflammatory microRNA species, and interleukin-22 (IL-22), an anti-inflammatory cytokine, has also exhibited positive effects in ulcerative colitis.
DUBLIN – Genomics plc raised £25 million (US$32.5 million) in a series B round, led by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., which also signed up for a three- to five-year collaboration in which the Oxford, U.K.-based data science firm will hunt for new drug targets and seek new disease insights by analyzing extensive repositories of human genetic data that are linked to phenotypes and clinical outcomes.
DUBLIN – Shares in Affimed NV (NASDAQ:AFMD) surged 150 percent during premarket trading Tuesday on news of an alliance with Genentech to develop bispecific drugs that will direct a natural killer (NK) cell response against multiple solid and hematological tumors. Heidelberg, Germany-based Affimed is getting $96 million in up-front and guaranteed near-term funding and could earn as much as $5 billion from development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
DUBLIN – Shire plc's newly approved plasma kallikrein inhibitor Takhzyro (lanadelumab-flyo) has, in the eyes of some analysts, the potential to reshape the hereditary angioedema (HAE) treatment landscape because of its combination of efficacy, safety and tolerability, and convenience.
DUBLIN – Argenx SE passed a critical milestone in its immuno-oncology alliance with Abbvie Inc., by delivering an IND package for ARGX-115, its first-in-class antibody directed at glycoprotein A repetitions predominant (GARP), a cell-surface docking receptor that modulates the activity of the immunosuppressive cytokine transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta). Abbvie, of North Chicago, has now exercised an option on the program, in which it originally obtained an interest two and a half years ago. (See BioWorld Today, April 22, 2016.)
DUBLIN – Shares in Active Biotech AB dropped 37 percent Tuesday on news that its lead drug laquinimod, which is licensed to Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., missed the primary endpoint of a phase II trial in Huntington's disease.
DUBLIN – With Opdivo (nivolumab) about to cede leadership in the PD-1 inhibitor market to longtime rival Keytruda (pembrolizumab) today, the EMA's Committee on Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) did not pick a good time to refuse Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. an application for Opdivo plus low-dose Yervoy (ipilimumab) in first-line renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
