The anti-TIGIT bispecific antibody AGEN-1777’s preclinical status didn’t stand in the way of Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s whopper deal with Agenus Inc., which is collecting $200 million up front and as much as $1.36 billion in potential milestone payments in trade for development and commercial rights to the Fc-enhanced compound. Read More
HONG KONG – Hummingbird Bioscience Pte. Ltd. has raised $125 million in a series C financing to further investments in its early stage pipeline, as well as support the clinical development of its two lead oncology programs. Read More
Less than a year after Novartis AG's acquisition of optogenetics specialist Vedere Bio Inc., its successor Vedere Bio II Inc. is launching with $77 million in series A financing, led by Octagon Capital. The company will develop earlier-stage assets than those Novartis purchased, including new, mutation-agnostic optogenetics technology to improve upon current gene therapies aimed at restoring functional vision to people with vision loss due to photoreceptor death. Read More
Interius Biotherapeutics Inc., which just closed on an oversubscribed $76 million series A financing, is fixed on simplifying CAR T-cell creation by making the process less cumbersome, less expensive and time consuming, and all done in vivo. Read More
LONDON – Technology commercialization specialist Eurekare SA has arrived on the scene after raising a $60 million series A, with which it plans to seed fund the formation of microbiome and synthetic biology startups and invest in later-stage rounds of companies specializing in those two fields. Read More
A grueling day of congressional questions and accusations isn’t the end of a U.S. House Oversight Committee investigation into Abbvie Inc.’s pricing of blockbuster drugs Humira and Imbruvica. Read More
DUBLIN – Bergenbio ASA joins an expanding list of companies whose candidate drug has failed to attain the primary endpoint of a clinical trial in COVID-19. Read More
In a rare move, the FDA disclosed summary trial information May 17 about Cytodyn Inc.’s Vyrologix (leronlimab), noting that currently available data don’t support the clinical benefit of the drug as a COVID-19 treatment. Read More
Amid the trend of investors partnering with Western biotech companies to set up China-focused joint ventures, San Diego-based Kinnate Biopharma Inc. has joined Orbimed Asia Partners, Orbimed Private Investments and Foresite Capital to establish a JV in Shanghai to move its preclinical kinase inhibitor candidates forward in greater China. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Certa Therapeutics Pty Ltd. founder and CEO Darren Kelly knows a thing or two about launching biotech companies. He spun out Fibrotech Therapeutics in 2006 from the University of Melbourne, which was one of the Medical Research Commercialization Fund’s first investments. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Amarin, Apnimed, Bergenbio, Catalyst, Cybin, GSK, I-Mab, Leo, Medicago, Metacrine, Mustang, Novo Nordisk, Realta, Roche, Sarepta, Seven and Eight, Shield. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Acer, Advicenne, Affyimmune, Biontech, Brii, Cytodyn, Eli Lilly, Innocare, Innovent, Kinnate, Merck, Pfizer, Qpex, Relief. Read More
