If there had been any lingering market concerns following the temporary partial clinical hold earlier this year for Arcellx Inc.’s multiple myeloma CAR T-cell therapy, CART-ddBCMA, they were likely put to rest as partner Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Kite unit expanded the scope of the firms’ late 2022 collaboration to include lymphomas. At the same time, Kite exercised an option to negotiate a license for Arcellx’s ARC-Sparx program, ACLX-001, in multiple myeloma.
In a global deal worth up to $770.5 million in up-front and milestone payments, Stevenage, U.K.-based Autifony Therapeutics Ltd. signed with Dublin-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc for two ion channel-targeting programs aimed at finding and developing new drugs for neurological disorders. Autifony will take selected candidates through preclinical development, while Jazz will cover clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory activities and commercialization.
Legend Biotech Corp. is entering what it no doubt hopes will be another fruitful collaboration with big pharma. Legend’s wholly owned subsidiary, Legend Biotech Ireland Ltd., will work with Novartis AG in an exclusive global development and license agreement for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies targeting DLL3.
October marked a historic milestone for the biopharma industry, with deal values hitting $44.91 billion. It was the highest amount ever recorded by BioWorld, topping a deal value of $42.45 billion in December 2022. While the cumulative value of biopharma deals through Q3 lagged behind the previous year, October’s outstanding value has catapulted this year ahead. In the first 10 months of 2023, deal value reached $175.2 billion, compared to $148.56 billion recorded in the same period in 2022.
Legend Biotech Corp. is entering what it no doubt hopes will be another fruitful collaboration with big pharma. Legend’s wholly owned subsidiary, Legend Biotech Ireland Ltd., will work with Novartis AG in an exclusive global development and license agreement for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies targeting DLL3.
October marked a historic milestone for the biopharma industry, with deal values hitting $44.91 billion. It was the highest amount ever recorded by BioWorld, topping a deal value of $42.45 billion in December 2022. While the cumulative value of biopharma deals through Q3 lagged behind the previous year, October’s outstanding value has catapulted this year ahead. In the first 10 months of 2023, deal value reached $175.2 billion, compared to $148.56 billion recorded in the same period in 2022.
The artificial intelligence company Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer AG have upped the ante on their 2020 collaboration deal to include precision oncology, with the possibility of more than $1 billion in potential milestone payments for Recursion.
Astrazeneca plc will pay up to $2 billion for Eccogene Co. Ltd.’s oral weight loss candidate, ECC-5004, as big and small pharma players alike work to gain ground in the burgeoning obesity market where Eli Lilly and Co. scored the latest U.S. FDA approval of Zepbound (tirzepatide).
While med-tech deals were well below average the past two months, cumulative values are up 47.67% over the same period last year. Through October, the total worth of med-tech deals reached $9.97 billion, rising from $6.75 billion in the corresponding period in 2022.
South Korea’s Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceuticals Corp. said that it struck a deal potentially worth $1.3 billion with Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG for its CKD-510 candidate for neurological and cardiovascular diseases, propelling its shares upward 26.11% by market closing of Nov. 6. With the “largest ever” deal in its history, shares of the Seoul-based pharmaceutical (KOSPI:185750) on the Korea Exchange rose by 26.11%, or ₩26,500, closing at ₩128,000 ($98.70).