Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) notched its sixth tuck-in buy of the year, acquiring long-time partner and resorbable polymer maker Tepha Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The deal will facilitate expansion of BD’s surgical mesh offerings and drive growth in new areas of soft tissue repair, reconstruction and regeneration. Wall Street gave the Tepha deal a thumbs up. After hitting a high of $256.32 Tuesday, BD shares (NYSE:BDX) maintained a strong beat, closing up 2.11 at $254.69.

Organon & Co. will license exclusive global development, manufacturing and commercial rights to ebopiprant (OBE-022) from Obseva SA. Ebopiprant is a prostaglandin F2α receptor antagonist being developed for treating preterm labor by reducing inflammation and uterine contractions. Obseva could receive tiered double-digit royalties on commercial sales and as much as $500 million in up-front and milestone payments, including $25 million to be paid at signing, up to $90 million in development and regulatory milestones and up to $385 million in sales-based milestones.

While 2020 was clearly a busier year for grants and nonprofit deals with biopharma companies, pandemic efforts continue to drive the activity in these two areas. Through mid-July, there have been 204 grants valued at $1.75 billion, and 516 bio/nonprofit deals worth more than $8 billion, up from $4.66 billion only a month ago.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had previously reported it would more tightly scrutinize mergers and acquisitions with an eye toward the impact on competition, and voted July 21 to expand its authority to review these activities. The agency also voted to eliminate restrictions by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on servicing of their devices, thus putting both drug and device makers on alert that much more rigorous FTC enforcement has arrived.

In a deal that could bring Arvinas Inc. a potential $2.4 billion, the company will collaborate with Pfizer Inc. to develop and commercialize an oral estrogen receptor protein degrader. In addition to a potential $400 million in approval milestones and a possible $1 billion in commercial milestones, Arvinas will be paid $650 million up front by Pfizer, which will also make an equity investment of $350 million in Arvinas while receiving about 3.5 million newly issued Arvinas common stock shares. With the deal, Pfizer will have a 7% equity share in Arvinas. The two plan to equally divide development and commercialization costs as well as any profits.

Cellares Corp. added Poseida Therapeutics Inc. to its expanding early access partnership program (EAPP) for the company's Cell Shuttle, a highly specialized "factory in a box" solution for development of cell therapies. San Diego-based Poseida brings two autologous CAR-T product candidates to the program and joins Pact Pharma Inc. and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the EAPP.

In a deal worth up to $108 million, ophthalmic startup Eluminex Biosciences Ltd. has licensed the global rights to Fibrogen Inc.’s biosynthetic cornea derived from recombinant human collagen (RHC) type III intended to tackle corneal blindness.