Not only did newly emergent Kyverna Therapeutics Inc. burst out of the gate with a $25 million series A, but it enhanced its entrance with a deal from Gilead Sciences Inc., one of the company’s initial funders, potentially worth $587.5 million.
When Zebiai Therapeutics Inc.’s CEO, Rick Wagner, went about naming his new machine learning company, he wanted it to connote something dramatic that displayed the company’s potential to reach into the seemingly boundless future technology had unlocked.
Pfizer Inc. was a swinging door today as it sold its small molecule for treating patients with behavioral and neurological symptoms to Biogen Inc., while licensing reboxetine’s data and intellectual property and granting esreboxetine’s development and commercialization rights to Axsome Therapeutics Inc.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s acquisition of Dermira Inc. for $1.1 billion in cash enlarges Lilly’s dermatology pipeline with the addition of lebrikizumab, a monoclonal antibody designed to bind IL-13 with high affinity, now in two phase III studies for treating moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD) in adolescent and adult patients, ages 12 and older.
Nurix Therapeutics Inc. landed its second big pharma collaboration in seven months when it signed with Sanofi SA to discover, develop and commercialize a pipeline of protein degradation therapies. In the Sanofi deal, Nurix receives $55 million up front and is eligible for up to about $2.5 billion in total payments based on achieved milestones. To start, Nurix will design small molecules to induce degradation in three specific targets while Sanofi has the option to up the ante to five targets. Sanofi receives exclusive rights and will handle clinical development and commercialization and Nurix retains the option to co-develop and co-co-promote up to two products in the U.S.
It’s a big day for privately held Empirico Inc. as it embarks on a massive combo pharma deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. while racking up a $17 million series A-2 financing.
With a newly raised $60 million series B financing, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans to start a phase IIb/III trial of its lead product, TP-03, for treating demodex blepharitis, and to jumpstart two other clinical programs.
In a deal with just $50 million up front but the potential to reach $2.5 billion, Tokyo’s Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, U.K., are joining Merck & Co. Inc. in an exclusive worldwide research collaboration and license agreement to develop small-molecule inhibitors against several cancer targets, including the KRAS oncogene.
An aspect of artificial intelligence (AI) that’s often misunderstood is its power, something Deep Genomics Inc.’s founder and CEO, Brendan Frey, does his best to clarify for collaborators and his employees. “One problem of AI is thinking of it as a magic black box that can solve any issue,” Frey told BioWorld soon after the company announced a $40 million series B financing. “If you take that approach, it won’t help.”
