A collaboration aimed at identifying and developing potential new antimalarial drug candidate drugs has been announced between Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, and Janssen Pharmaceutica, with assistance from Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Read More
New phase IIb clinical trial data show the antigen R-21, a malaria vaccine candidate created by the University of Oxford that uses Novavax Inc.'s Matrix-M adjuvant, demonstrated 77% efficacy in children. Read More
HONG KONG – Qilu Pharmaceutical Ltd. has inked a deal for the global rights to Peptron Inc.’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate PAb-001-ADC for the treatment of various cancers. Seoul, South Korea-based Peptron stands to receive an up-front payment of $3 million and $539 million in milestone payments, as well as royalties. Read More
Genome editing startup Edigene Inc. closed a ¥400 million (US$62 million) series B+ round to expand its operation to more cities and advance its lead product ET-01 into clinical trials. The financing follows the $67 million series B that closed in October 2020. Read More
HONG KONG – Pharmcadd Co. Ltd., a developer of an artificial intelligence (AI) and physics-based drug discovery platform, bagged ₩17.3 billion (US$15.5 million) in its series B funding. This brings the total funds raised since its establishment to $22 million. Read More
While biopharma deals are not showing any drastic changes over last year, three areas that continue to dominate the landscape include the pandemic, oncology and cell and gene therapies. The lack of mega-mergers so far this year, specifically those above $10 billion, is also holding M&A values down by about 61% compared to this point in 2020, even though the number of mergers has climbed. Read More
LONDON – A large scale U.K. study looking at the impact of COVID-19 vaccinations on antibody responses and new infections in 373,402 people in the general population has shown a single dose of vaccine cut infections by 65%. Read More
Biopharmas in Asia-Pacific raising money in public or private financings, including: Edigene, Immunome, SG Austria, Sunshine, Vaccitech, Zai Lab. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations in Asia-Pacific, including: Algernon, Biogen, Chugai, Cstone, Eisai, Gilead Sciences, Glenmark, Hua Medicine, Johnson & Johnson, Medicago, Merck, Shanghai Henlius, Transcenta. Read More
