Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK) pledged $2.1 billion up front and as much as $1.2 billion in development milestone payments to take over privately held Affinivax Inc. and bring aboard the phase II-stage, next-generation, 24-valent pneumococcal vaccine candidate, AFX-3772. London-based GSK is buying all outstanding shares of Affinivax, of Cambridge, Mass., for $2.1 billion upon closing the deal in the third quarter of this year, and two potential milestone payments of $600 million to be paid if certain pediatric development goals are reached.
Phase II melanoma data characterized by Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. as positive failed to excite Wall Street, which took away 53.6% of the company’s share value (NASDAQ:IOVA), or $8.10, and pushed the closing price to $7.02 on May 27. The San Carlos, Calif.-based firm offered results from registrational cohort 4 (n=87) of the C-144-01 study testing lifileucel (LN-144, autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) in advanced melanoma.
Flagship Pioneering-backed Profound Therapeutics Inc. made its debut with $75 million from its originator to support ongoing efforts with the Profoundry platform, which the company said has led to the discovery of tens of thousands of novel proteins as part of an ambitious plan for “remapping the landscape of the human genome.”
Paragon Biosciences-backed Castle Creek Biosciences Inc. pulled off an oversubscribed and upsized preferred stock financing of $112.8 million. The money should let the firm tie the bow on a phase III study and roll out top-line results of its lead ex vivo product candidate for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) called D-Fi (dabocemagene autoficel, also known as FCX-007).
The recent online publication of findings from the University of Southern California ataxia working group called Enigma served to fuel more interest in the simmering drug development space of Friederichs’s ataxia (FRDA), where a handful of gene therapies and other approaches, plus one promising small-molecule treatment, are in the works.
Atara Biotherapeutics Inc. is keeping the faith and figuring out next steps with its next-generation, mesothelin-directed CAR T-cell therapies after Bayer AG ended their exclusive worldwide licensing agreement, signed in late 2020. The setup included funding and development of ATA-3271, an armored allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy, and an autologous version, ATA-2271, for high mesothelin-expressing tumors such as malignant pleural mesothelioma and non-small-cell lung cancer.
A paper published May 3 in Nature Communications about a patient infected with Mycobacterium chelonae who was cured by way of bacteriophage treatment sparked more intrigue around how to attack the nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) group of bugs that cause lung infections.
Cullinan Oncology Inc.’s lead program deal with Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. subsidiary Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. brings $275 million up front and the potential for as much as $130 million in regulatory milestone payments.
Apollo Global Management Inc. is taking a minority equity interest in European venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners, pledging to commit of up to €1 billion (US$1.04 billion) in managed capital to the latter’s investment coffers.
As the six-month interim analysis of phase II data for ATA-199 in progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) nears, investors in Atara Biotherapeutics Inc. – not to mention patients – are growing more intrigued by the prospect, an off-the-shelf T-cell candidate that targets Epstein Barr virus-infected B cells and plasma cells in the central nervous system.
