Samsung Biologics Co. Ltd. has agreed to buy out Biogen Inc.’s stake in the joint venture Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd. for $2.3 billion. Biogen will receive $1 billion in cash at closing and $1.25 billion in deferred payments of $812.5 million due at the first anniversary and $437.5 million due at the second anniversary of the closing of the transaction. Biogen is also expected to receive up to $50 million upon achievement of certain commercial milestones.

Innovent Biologics Inc. has secured an option to license China rights for up to three enzyme specific inhibitors for inflammatory disorders with few or no treatments from Amagma Therapeutics Inc. Innovent will also manufacture the inhibitors for a phase II trial in the region.

With a potentially pivotal trial of its Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) candidate CAP-1002 starting up, Capricor Therapeutics Inc. has tapped Nippon Shinyaku Co. Ltd. subsidiary NS Pharma Inc. to sell and distribute the cell therapy, pending U.S. FDA approval. The deal brings Capricor $30 million up front to fund the phase III trial, while also lining it up for as much as $705 million in milestone payments from its Japanese partner, which launched its own DMD therapy, Viltepso (viltolarsen), in the U.S. in 2020. Capricor shares (NASADQ:CAPR) rose 21.6% to $3.44 Jan. 25.

Targeting the toxic alpha-synuclein protein found in the brains of people with Parkinson’s is one of the most promising approaches to treat the disease in the clinic – but getting any drug into the brain is a challenge. Sanofi SA has joined with ABL Bio Inc. to solve this problem, in-licensing ABL-301, a preclinical bispecific antibody that locks on to misfolded alpha-synuclein but also includes a molecular “shuttle” that allows it to penetrate the blood-brain barrier.

Shanghai-based Everest Medicines Ltd. has won exclusive global rights to a set of viral 3C-like (3CL) protease inhibitors from Singapore's national drug discovery platform, the Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), in a deal worth up to $214.5 million.

3Sbio Inc.’s subsidiary, Sunshine Guojian Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., has licensed out the global rights of its anti-PD-1 antibody candidate, 609-A, to Florida-based Syncromune Inc. in a deal the company said is worth up to “hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.”

Sperogenix Therapeutics Ltd. has acquired exclusive greater China rights to Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG’s glucocorticoid analogue vamorolone in a deal worth up to $124 million.