South Korea’s Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceuticals Corp. said that it struck a deal potentially worth $1.3 billion with Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG for its CKD-510 candidate for neurological and cardiovascular diseases, propelling its shares upward 26.11% by market closing of Nov. 6. With the “largest ever” deal in its history, shares of the Seoul-based pharmaceutical (KOSPI:185750) on the Korea Exchange rose by 26.11%, or ₩26,500, closing at ₩128,000 ($98.70). Read More

Demand for its COVID-19 vaccine might be declining, but Biontech SE is putting its revenue to good use, picking up rights to a bispecific antibody candidate from Biotheus Inc. in exchange for $55 million up front and potentially more than $1 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestones. Read More

Hitching onto the emerging drug class of degrader-antibody conjugates (DAC), U.S. pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) is picking up rights to the U.S. and Korean biotech Orum Therapeutics Inc.’s blood cancer candidate, ORM-6151, in a potential $180 million deal. Read More

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s sibeprenlimab (VIS-649) met the primary efficacy endpoint in a phase II trial for treating immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN), demonstrating that 12 months of treatment resulted in significant reductions in proteinuria compared to placebo. Read More

What’s it going to take for Australia’s biotech industry to be more self-sufficient? Although Australia is far away from the rest of the world, no one is an island when it comes to biotechnology, Ausbiotech CEO Lorraine Chiroiu said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held in Brisbane Nov. 1-3. Investors gathered to riff about what they were looking for in Australian biotech investments and what needs to change for the sector to be sustainable. All agreed that the science in Australia is top-notch but that the ecosystem needs more investment to be competitive. Read More

Multinational pharma companies like Moderna Inc. and Sanofi SA are setting up mRNA R&D centers in Australia and are banking on the country’s decades of mRNA expertise to bring new therapeutics to the clinic and to serve as regional hubs in Asia Pacific, speakers said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held Nov 1-3 in Brisbane, Australia. Read More

Australia has a lot to celebrate when it comes to vaccines. The University of Queensland is where Ian Frazer invented the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil, and now Australia is projected to be the first in the word to eliminate cervical cancer, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said during the Ausbiotech 2023 conference held Nov. 1-3 in Brisbane, Australia. Read More

Israel’s finance ministry has increased the amount of funding high-tech companies with a short runway, including biotechs, can apply for under a fast-track scheme run by independent, publicly funded agency The Israel Innovation Authority, in response to the country’s war against Hamas. Read More

Israeli biotech Biolinerx Ltd. will hand off the rights to its stem cell mobilizer, motixafortide, in Asia to China’s Gloria Biosciences Co. Ltd. via an out-licensing deal worth up to $280 million, news that sent stocks soaring nearly 13% on Oct. 31. Read More

In October, the biopharma industry secured $11.6 billion in financings, marking the highest monthly amount since June 2021 when value totaled $12.3 billion. Biopharma financings have averaged $6.1 billion per month so far in 2023, an increase from the $5.07 billion monthly average for all of 2022. Read More

Clinical updates from Asia, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Astrazeneca, Biogen, Biosyngen Bridge, Calliditas, F2G, Genexine, Henlius, Highfield, Iksuda, Innocare, OLife Molecular, tsuka, Recce, Samsung Bioepis, SN Bioscience, Sumitomo. Read More

Biopharma happenings in Asia-Pacific, such as deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: 3SBio, Affamed, Apnimed, Basilea, Cstone, Genentech, Intron, Roche Holding, Shenyang, Shionogi, Sosei. Read More

Regulatory snapshots, including drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations in Asia-Pacific: Chipscreen, Chimeric, Coherus, Huidagene, Sosei. Read More