Business
UK pharma will invest $2.5bn in Beijing R&D hub, build a vaccine manufacturing site with BioKangtai, and partner in chronic disease with Syneron and in oncology/immunology with Harbour BioMed.
J&J followed in the footsteps of Lilly and Merck, which have announced multibillion-dollar investments in US manufacturing since Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The development could highlight the power of competitive market forces over government price controls or suggest Medicare price negotiation is enhancing competitive market forces.
A new report from a domestic institute on South Korea’s biopharma M&A trends shows a pickup in activity, but that this remains relatively weak and small-scale. It calls for broader domestic government support to build expertise, drive innovation and globalization.
Amvuttra will target a substantially larger patient population with a new indication, but it is third to market behind Pfizer’s Vyndaqel and Bridge Bio’s Attruby and will cost more.
Public Company Edition: Cargo suspended development and cut 90% of its workforce to focus on strategic alternatives, while Pyxis and Kiromic laid off or furloughed employees. Also, Pfizer sold its remaining Haleon shares for $3.3bn, Galderma sold $1bn in bonds and other financings.
Paratek agrees to acquire Optinose in a “take-private” deal valued at $330m, adding chronic rhinosinusitis product Xhance to its antibiotic Nuzyra.
The France-based giant inks a transaction potentially worth around $1.9bn to get hold of Dren Bio’s autoimmune disease treatment DR-0201.
Miltenyi’s leadership calls for a streamlined regulatory framework as India gears to scale in cell and gene therapy. Executives from the German group also talked to Scrip about helping advance local capabilities, delivering point-of-care CAR- T cell therapy to hospitals and pricing dynamics.
Servier takes a Phase I rationally designed cancer candidate for $70m up front, while Black Diamond will wait on more mature data for its Phase II lead candidate in lung cancer.
The company’s Immunovant announced positive data from a Phase III trial in myasthenia gravis but the focus is on next-generation drug IMVT-1402.
Private Company Edition: There have been five $100m-plus VC rounds so far this month, up from three in all of February. Flagship unveiled Lila Sciences with $200m, while Curevo and Insilico raised $110m in series B and E rounds, respectively. Also, Arbor Biotech garnered $73.9m.
The 75-year-old veteran of rare disease drug development is handing over the reins to a successor, but will stay to help Stoke Therapeutics expand its pipeline.
CEO Carlos Gallardo tells Scrip the Barcelona-based group has laid the foundations to advance four promising assets that have considerable potential for a variety of dermatological diseases.
Amgen’s AI model to predict proteins in the “bright Goldilocks zone of viscosity” with over 80% accuracy minus a wet lab experiment holds immense potential, VP Research Haldar said at an event as he spoke about a “hinge moment” for AI in pharma
Deal Snapshot: The antibody-drug conjugate field continues one of the hottest dealmaking spaces and Roche continues to invest heavily. Its latest pact could be transformative for the UK firm which already has a decent number of big pharma partners.
Move to acquire profitable Tokyo-based venture part of Japanese major's strategy of building a broader ecosystem for dementia detection and care.
The potential first-in-class antibody oligonucleotide conjugate could treat a form of the muscle wasting disease, and could be the first of Avidity’s trio of rare disease drugs to gain approval.
After lowering its full-year earnings guidance just six weeks before the end of 2024, Bayer, by talking up of the prospects for its new drug launches and a major clinical trial result in 2025, might risk damaging its integrity further.
The Biovelocita II fund is supported by the likes of Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer