DUBLIN – Affimed NV has found another taker for its tetravalent bispecific antibody-based innate cell engager (ICE) platform. Roivant Sciences GmbH is putting down $40 million in cash, plus another $20 million of its own stock, as part of a multiprogram alliance involving AFM-32 plus additional molecules directed at targets not currently addressed by Affimed’s pipeline. Some $2 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones are also attached to the deal.
Yantai, China-based biologics developer Remegen Ltd. launched the biggest pre-revenue biotech IPO in Hong Kong this year by raising HK$3.99 billion ($514.5 million) on Nov 9. With this IPO, Remegen’s CEO Jianmin Fang told BioWorld in an exclusive interview, the company aims to take its assets abroad.
New and updated preclinical and clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s annual meeting Nov. 9-14, including: 4D, Acepodia, Advaxis, Affimed, Agenus, Alkermes, Alx, Amgen, Beam, Bioinvent, Checkpoint, Codiak, Genocea, Huya, Kleo, Oncolytics, Oncosec, Rubius, Transgene, Vigeo, Windmil.
Fochon Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., out-licensed FCN-338, a BCL-2 inhibitor, to Eli Lilly and Co. for an up-front payment of $40 million along with milestones and royalties. The deal marks another example of Chinese biotech companies reversing the licensing flow.
In another multibillion-dollar bid to further strengthen its oncology pipeline, Merck & Co. Inc. is set to acquire privately held Velosbio Inc. for $2.75 billion in cash. Velosbio is developing cancer therapies targeting receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1. The company’s follow-on programs include next-generation antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific immune-engagers targeting ROR1, which it has been developing for nearly two years.
One of the reasons that pancreatic cancer remains such a stubbornly dismal disease is that it is extremely desmoplastic. In other words, most of a pancreatic tumor is not made up of tumor cells, but of stroma. Stroma, in turn, is a double-edged sword for the tumor cells. Its connective tissue component impedes blood flow, which is part of what makes pancreatic cancer so drug-resistant. But the lack of blood also means a lack of oxygen and nutrients, so pancreatic tumors must find alternate ways to feed themselves. That’s where nerves come in. In the Nov. 2, 2020, online issue of Cell, researchers published new insights into how innervation feeds tumors, and how to stop them from doing so.
Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. posted positive top-line results from the phase III SEAL trial of Xpovio (selinexor), including meeting the study’s primary endpoint, and likely extending its reach into the company’s bottom line.
Jounce Therapeutics Inc. has quit enrolling Emerge, an open-label phase II study of its inducible T-cell co-stimulator agonist, vopratelimab, the company’s most advanced candidate.
DUBLIN – Kiadis Pharma BV has parlayed its €31.9 million (US$37.2 million) stock-based acquisition of Cytosen Therapeutics Inc. last year, which involved an initial outlay of just €14.5 million worth of shares, into a €308 million payday with Sanofi SA.
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