LONDON – The U.K. government has signed a €1.4 billion (US$1.7 billion) advance purchase agreement with French biotech Valneva SE, for the supply of up to 190 million doses of its attenuated COVID-19 vaccine, VLA-2001.
Click Therapeutics Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH inked a deal valued at more than $500 million to collaborate on the development and commercialization of a prescription-based digital therapeutic for schizophrenia. The mobile application, currently called CT-155, uses cognitive and neurobehavioral techniques to reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as cognitive deficits and impaired social functioning.
A nearly $2 billion global development and commercialization deal with Abbvie Inc. and a $418 million private placement have bolstered I-Mab Biopharma Co. Ltd.’s position globally. I-Mab framed the deal as being the largest out-licensing and global partnership transaction ever executed by a China-based biotech.
In its second acquisition of the past four weeks, Lodo Therapeutics Corp., acquired Hibiskus Biopharma Inc. plus exclusive worldwide rights from the University of California Riverside and Michigan State University to preclinical proteasome and immunoproteasome inhibitors developed by Hibiskus’ two co-founders.
The massive deal Jounce Therapeutics Inc. has cut with Gilead Sciences Inc., an agreement that could eventually add up to about $805 million, will strengthen Jounce’s ability to develop its pipeline and choose new partners, the company’s CEO and president told BioWorld.
Times have changed at Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. since it spun out Akcea Therapeutics Inc. in 2015. The company’s evolution is such that Ionis is now ready to bring Akcea back into the fold by acquiring the remaining 24% of its affiliate.
Less than a month after would-be competitor DBV Technologies SA suffered a regulatory setback with its peanut allergy patch candidate, Aimmune Therapeutics Inc. – which at the start of the year gained FDA clearance for Palforzia in the same space – is undergoing an all-cash takeover valued at $2.6 billion by Nestle SA unit Nestle Health Science SA.
DUBLIN – Shares in Polyphor AG gained as much as 12% during early trading Aug. 31 on news of a deal in China for its lead drug, balixafortide, which is currently undergoing a phase III trial in HER2-negative locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.
Moving to build out its central nervous system (CNS) portfolio with an eye to what Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO Steve Davis called an "urgent need for new approaches to treat pain without causing addiction," the company is acquiring privately-held Cersci Therapeutics Inc. for $52.5 million, primarily in stock.
LONDON – Engitix Ltd has secured Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s endorsement of its extracellular matrix (ECM) technology in a potential $500 million deal in liver fibrosis.