LONDON – Five years after offloading it to Amgen Inc. for $300 million, Dutch VC Forbion has reacquired Dezima Pharma BV and its sole product obicetrapib, a cholesterol-lowering drug for patients intolerant to statins.
HONG KONG – Last week was a busy one for Harbour Biomed Therapeutics Ltd., seeing the company sign a COVID-19 research collaboration with several Dutch institutions as well as lodge an application to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
HONG KONG –Celltrion Group is partnering with Intract Pharma Ltd. to jointly develop an oral tablet form of infliximab. “Celltrion will supply the drug material through clinical evaluation and into the market, while Intract will be responsible for performing clinical studies,” Bill Lindsay, the CEO of Intract, told BioWorld.
HONG KONG - Hua Medicine Ltd. has signed a commercialization and partnership deal with Bayer AG for a new diabetes treatment in China. Hua’s dorzagliatin, a first-in-class dual-acting glucokinase activator, is designed to control the progressive degenerative nature of diabetes by restoring glucose homeostasis in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).
The pace of biopharma mergers and acquisitions has quickened with Johnson & Johnson’s $6.5 billion all-cash acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. Bringing Momenta into the fold strengthens the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson’s immune-mediated disease portfolio and grows its interest in autoantibody-driven disease therapies.
Innovent Biologics Inc., of Suzhou, has out-licensed ex-China rights for its PD-1 drug Tyvyt (sintilimab) to Eli Lilly and Co. in an expanded license deal. The Chinese firm will receive $200 million upfront in the deal, the value of which could approach up to $1.03 billion.
HONG KONG – Huya Bioscience International LLC, which has a special interest in China-developed assets, has obtained an exclusive global license, bar China, for the SHP2 inhibitor HBI-2376 from Suzhou-based Genhouse Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Tango Therapeutics Inc. CEO Barbara Weber told BioWorld that Gilead Sciences Inc.’s decision to greatly expand their 2018 deal in oncology – a pact then valued as high as $1.7 billion – was based on brisker than expected progress in the original, five-target effort.
Sanofi SA is acquiring Principia Biopharma Inc. in a $3.68 billion deal that brings Sanofi three clinical-stage BTK inhibitors and simplifies a partnership that began three years ago. Paris-based Sanofi plans to acquire all outstanding Principia common stock shares for $100 each at a $3.36 billion enterprise value. Sanofi will get SAR-442168 (PRN-2246), the brain-penetrant candidate at the heart of the deal. The agreement now gives Sanofi full control of the program, bringing a three-year partnership between the two companies to an end