As the year draws to a close, there is no doubt that investors have been keeping a close watch on emerging companies developing cancer therapies as well as those with new vaccines and treatments aimed at defeating COVID-19.
Australian biopharma Immutep Ltd. saw its stock price jump 165% Dec. 10, as the company reported that adding its eftilagimod alpha (IMP-321, “efti”) to paclitaxel resulted in what the company called a “promising and improving” trend toward increased overall survival in women with metastatic hormone receptor-driven breast cancer.
Suzhou, China-based Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd. said it's "actively initiating" multiregional phase II/III trials to test a combination of its angiogenesis inhibitor, GT-90001 (ascrinvacumab), and Opdivo (nivolumab) for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after preliminary data showed 40% of patients given the combo so far had partial remissions.
BEIJING – San Diego and Hangzhou, China-based biotech Denovo Biopharma LLC closed a series D financing round to raise nearly ¥300 million (US$46 million) on Dec. 8, just six months after its $83.5 million series C round. Denovo CFO Carrie Chen told BioWorld that the proceeds will be used to “upgrade the technology platform, advance the clinical programs, expand the team and license in new assets.”
Clinical-stage biopharma HBM Holdings Ltd. (also known as Harbour Biomed) debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Dec. 10, raising HK$1.71 billion (US$220.7 million) to advance its autoimmune candidates to commercial launches in 2023.
DUBLIN – Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is paying up to €1.18 billion (US$1.4 billion) to acquire antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer NBE-Therapeutics AG. The deal includes an undisclosed up-front payment, plus development and regulatory milestones linked to the progress of NBE’s pipeline of clinical and preclinical ADC programs.
New and updated preclinical and clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dec. 8-11, including: Amunix, Astrazeneca, Athenex, Beyondspring, Bold, Briacell, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, Evelo, Greenwich, Immutep, Infinity, Medsir, Novartis, Oncolytics, Pharmabcine.
New five-year breast cancer survival data from Greenwich Lifesciences Inc. ignited its stock for a wild ride that climbed nearly 1,000% upward Dec. 9, marking one of the biotech sector’s biggest single-day gains in 2020.
Data presented at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) – held, of course, in cyberspace and not San Antonio this year – added to the evidence that adding Verzenio (abemaciclib, Eli Lilly and Co.) to endocrine therapy for up to two years benefited women with high-risk, early stage hormone receptor-driven and HER2-negative breast cancer.
HONG KONG – Taipei, Taiwan-based Pharmaengine Inc. has signed a collaboration and licensing deal with Cambridge, U.K.-based Sentinel Oncology Ltd. for the latter’s checkpoint kinase 1 inhibitor, SOL-578. Through the agreement, Sentinel will receive an exclusivity payment and Pharmaengine will fund the IND-enabling studies.
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