BEIJING – Beigene Ltd. out-licensed its anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody tislelizumab to Novartis AG in a deal worth up to $2.2 billion, including $650 million up front. Novartis gains rights to develop and commercialize tislelizumab in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the EU, the U.K., Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Russia and Japan. Read More
Biond Biologics Ltd. co-founder and CEO Tehila Ben-Moshe told BioWorld that “a relatively small group of scientists who are very motivated started with a very basic scientific idea, which we were able to take all the way into clinical trials in four years,” and draw the interest of Paris-based Sanofi SA in a checkpoint inhibitor with multi-cell effects. In its second major deal of the week, Sanofi is pledging $125 million up front and more than $1 billion more in potential development, regulatory and sales-related milestone payments to Biond, of Misgav, Israel. Read More
LONDON – Enara Bio Ltd. has landed the first major deal around its dark antigen technology platform, signing up Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH in an agreement worth a potential €876 million (US$1.06 billion). Reaching that figure would require a product to make it to market. More immediately, Enara is getting an up-front payment, research and preclinical milestones for each of up to three tumor types explored in the partnership. Read More
Tessera Therapeutics Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based company working to "write therapeutic instructions into the genome," has raised $230 million in series B financing to back its development of potential cures and treatments for cardiovascular, oncological, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. Read More
With several deals and M&As falling within the highest values on record, 2020 turned out to be a solid year for the biopharma industry. Expectations are optimistic moving into 2021, when the U.S. will welcome a new president and its citizens should reach herd immunity from COVID-19. Read More
With so much ire in Congress directed toward U.S. prescription drug prices in 2019, it’s not surprising that prices remained relatively stable that year. That’s not to say there weren’t price hikes. In its second report on unsupported price increases, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) identified nine of the 100 top-selling drugs that had list price increases more than double the rate of medical inflation in 2019 and that accounted for the largest increases in U.S. spending on drugs. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Center (MTPConnect) is boosting funding for the translation and commercialization of research in diabetes, cardiovascular disease and regenerative medicine. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Ascletis, Blue Earth, Bone Therapeutics, Caladrius, Cellectar, Clearside, Clovis, Gannex, GSK, GT, Helsinn, Lipocine, Merus, Mesoblast, Ox2, Resverlogix, Rezolute, Roche, Taiho, Terns, Vir, Vitalis. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Bayer, Creative Medical, Diurnal, Innovent, Lantheus, Merck, Moderna, Neurosense, Veralox. Read More
