Leo Pharma A/S, of Ballerup, Denmark, has eyed a stronger company presence in Asia during the past year and took a giant step to achieving it by signing a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with Oneness Biotech Co. Ltd., of Taipei, Taiwan, and Microbio Shanghai Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize FB-825 for treating atopic dermatitis and allergic asthma.
DUBLIN – Without particularly looking for a deal, immunometabolism specialist Sitryx Ltd. landed quite a large one – a licensing agreement in autoimmune disease with Eli Lilly and Co. involving up to four preclinical programs, for which it is receiving $50 million up front, $10 million as equity investment and up to $820 million in development milestones.
Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. said it's licensing a family of monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) to Seattle Genetics Inc. for inclusion in new early stage cancer-killing antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates, all directed to a single target. The deal holds $5 million up front for Five Prime, plus up to $525 million in milestone payments for the first two candidates. South San Francisco-based Five Prime's shares (NASDAQ:FPRX) rose about 18% on the deal, which interim CEO William Ringo said allows the firm "to realize value from our preclinical pipeline while prioritizing our clinical investments based on upcoming data readouts."
PERTH, Australia – Australian cell therapy developer Mesoblast Ltd. has partnered with Germany's Grünenthal Group to develop and commercialize Mesoblast's allogeneic cell therapy candidate, MPC-06-ID, in a deal that carves out Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
CEO Travis Mickle said prodrug-focused Kempharm Inc.'s potential $493 million deal with Gurnet Point Capital (GPC) marks "the end of a long journey to reach a very valuable point" in the story of the company, which has "ended with the same goal it started with" – gaining the best possible partner for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) prospects KP-415 and KP-484.
Shares of San Diego-based Cidara Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CDTX) enjoyed a skyward ride, closing Tuesday at $2.35, up 67 cents, or 40%, on word of a deal with Mundipharma International Ltd., of Cambridge, U.K., to develop and commercialize rezafungin for invasive fungal infections. "Historically, [antifungal] pricing has been much stronger in the EU, so that is an important opportunity for us and now for Mundipharma as well," Cidara CEO Jeffrey Stein said.
HONG KONG – Daejeon, South Korea-based Alteogen Inc. said that it has signed a licensing agreement with Brazil's Cristália Produtos Químicos Farmacêuticos Ltd. to jointly develop and commercialize Alteogen's ALT-P1, a persistent growth hormone for children.
Durect Corp. (NASDAQ: DRXX) got a solid bump after announcing it granted Gilead Sciences Inc. exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize a long-acting injectable HIV product created with Durect's platform, Saber, in a deal that could generate more than $300 million for Durect.
HONG KONG – Singaporean biotech company Aum Biosciences Pte. Ltd. has in-licensed a potentially first-in-class PIM/PI3K/mTOR inhibitor from Inflection Biosciences Ltd., of Dublin and London, to develop it globally to treat a wide range of cancers.
Kalvista Pharmaceuticals Inc. made big news in October 2017 by way of its handsome deal with Merck & Co. Inc. to advance KVD-001, an intravitreal injection candidate to treat diabetic macular edema (DME).
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