Aviadobio Ltd. has entered a potential $2.18 billion license and commercialization agreement for its frontotemporal dementia gene therapy, AVB-101, with Astellas Pharma Inc. Astellas is making a $20 million equity investment in London-based Aviadobio and will pay up to $30 million up front in advance of deciding whether or not to exercise the exclusive option to worldwide rights. Read More
Astrazeneca plc is adding a preclinical-stage candidate to its cardiovascular pipeline via a potentially $2 billion licensing agreement with CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd., which includes a $100 million up-front payment for rights to YS-2302018, an oral Lp(a) disruptor. It’s an impressive figure for such an early program, but the Cambridge, U.K.-based pharma hailed the small molecule’s potential against a range of indications, both alone and in combination regimens that could include PCSK9 inhibitor AZD-0780. Read More
Taiwan’s Caliway Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. raised NT$6.4 billion (US$206 million) in its IPO on the Taipei Stock Exchange, making it the largest IPO in Taiwan’s biotech industry history and valuing the company at nearly $3 billion following the listing. Read More
Wuhan YZY Biopharma Co. Ltd. is out-licensing lead candidate M-701, a CD3/EpCAM bispecific antibody, to Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. (CTTQ) for China rights in a deal worth up to $143 million. Under the deal, Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd. subsidiary CTTQ is granted an exclusive license to develop, register, manufacture and commercialize M-701 within mainland China. Read More
Research into the regulation of gene expression experienced a significant breakthrough with the discovery of microRNA, small RNA molecules that do not code for proteins but control their translation. This finding has earned its discoverers – Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun – the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.” Read More
Flagship Pioneering and Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) are jointly committing up to SGD100 million (US$77.12 million) over the next five years to drive inter-party R&D collaboration and biotech creation in Singapore. Read More
Immunotherapy company Cartherics Pty Ltd. raised AU$15 million (US$10.3 million) in an oversubscribed series B round that will support the first clinical trial for lead chimeric antigen receptor natural killer therapy CTH-401 for ovarian cancer, and to expand its pipeline to include other diseases. Read More
Investigators at Nanjing Medical University and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center recently published data from their research that aimed to identify novel immunotherapy targets in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Read More
Gene and cell therapies will drive innovation for the next 10 years, Claus Zieler, the chief commercial officer at Astellas Pharma Inc., said in the newest episode of the BioWorld Insider podcast. Developers are on the cusp of breakthroughs because a gene can now be replaced “and that means we can potentially cure a disease rather than intervening in a disease.” Read More
Biopharma happenings in Asia-Pacific including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: ATF, Bionomics, Biotheus, Cenra, Combiphar, Curon, D-Wave Quantum, Hyloris, Immunoprecise Antibodies, Japan Tobacco, Leadermed, Liquidia, Merck, Moderna, Neurphoria, Mochida, Nxera Pharma, Pharmosa Shinogi, Xizang Weixinkang. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations in Asia-Pacific: Astrazeneca, Clinuvel, Modalis, Telix. Read More
