Triastek Inc., of Nanjing, China, scored a potential $1.2 billion collaboration and platform technology license deal with Biontech SE to manufacture oral RNA therapeutics with 3D printing technology.
As the “most concrete achievement” since its entry into the radiopharmaceutical therapy space last year, SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. picked up rights to Full-Life Technologies Ltd.’s RPT asset, FL-091, in a deal fetching up to $571.5 million.
Yuhan Corp., of Seoul, South Korea, has inked a ₩150 billion (US$108.6 million) deal with Korean biotech Ubix Therapeutics Inc. to gain exclusive global rights to UBX-103, Ubix’s oral small-molecule androgen receptor degrader for prostate cancer. Yuhan also announced July 1 that it gained the U.S. FDA’s nod to start a phase I study of a Gaucher disease drug candidate called YH-35995.
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. (MSD), known as Merck & Co. Inc. in the U.S. and Canada, terminated its potential $1.86 billion deal with San Diego-based Artiva Biotherapeutics Inc. for novel chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer cell therapies. GC Cell disclosed news of the terminated deal on the Korea Exchange near market close of June 25, saying it was notified by Artiva after the decision was reached by MSD’s internal decision makers.
France’s Théa Open Innovation, a subsidiary of Laboratoires Théa SAS, terminated its licensing agreement with South Korea’s Olix Pharmaceuticals Inc., and returned global rights of Olix’s ocular small interfering RNA (siRNA) biologic agents, OLX-301D and OLX-301A.
South Korea’s Genome & Co. Ltd. (KOSDAQ:314130) shares rose nearly 30% June 3 after it disclosed a potential ₩586.38 billion (US$426 million) licensing deal for its novel antibody-drug conjugate candidate with Switzerland’s Debiopharm International SA.
China’s Medilink Therapeutics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. and Germany’s Biontech SE signed another potential $1 billion-plus deal for novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targets, building off the first ADC-based licensing deal from last year.
A licensing deal worth potentially up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi SA has breathed new life into Novavax Inc., which has struggled to compete in the COVID-19 space with powerhouses Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc.
South Korea’s HK Inno.N Corp. said on May 2 that it gained exclusive development and commercial rights to Hangzhou, China-based Sciwind Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s once-weekly, injectable glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist, XW-003 (ecnoglutide), in South Korea to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity.
South Korea’s SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. and Shanghai-based Ignis Therapeutic Co. Ltd. signed a ₩804 billion (US$58 million) licensing deal on April 18, granting the latter global rights to a non-narcotic pain treatment candidate dubbed SKL-22544. A sodium channel blocker, SKL-22544 is in late discovery.