Japanese industrial conglomerate Asahi Kasei Corp. has made an offer to acquire Swedish rare diseases specialist Calliditas Therapeutics AB for SEK11.8 billion (US$1.1 billion). The offer, at an 83% premium to the closing share price of SEK113.60 on Monday, May 27, is recommended by the three biggest shareholders and the board of Calliditas, which said the company would benefit from “being part of a larger platform.”

Treatment with indoleamine dioxygenase-1 (IDO1) inhibitors reduced both viremia and B cell transformation in animal models of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD), while IDO1 up-regulation occurred in patients who would go on to develop PTLD. The findings, which were reported in the May 24, 2024, issue of Science by researchers from the University of Basel and the University Hospital Basel, point to new ways to predict, prevent and treat complications of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection.

Shanghai- and San Diego-based Degron Therapeutics Inc. secured a potential $1.2 billion deal with Tokyo-headquartered Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. May 23 for a multitarget collaboration and exclusive licensing agreement for molecular glue degraders. “It is a breakthrough technology in the small-molecule drug discovery field,” Degron CEO Lily Zou told BioWorld. “People talk about cell and gene therapy, but small molecules are still the mainstream of drug discovery, [with] more reach.”

As South Korea’s Curocell Inc. looks to develop the country’s first homegrown CAR T-cell therapy, CEO Gunsoo Kim highlighted rising and falling trends in the global CAR T development space at Bio Korea 2024.

Zai Lab Ltd., of Shanghai and Cambridge, Mass., has been on a regulatory roll in China, gaining approval of Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Augtyro (repotrectinib) for lung cancer on May 12 and NMPA acceptance of subcutaneous Vyvgart‘s (efgartigimod alfa SC) supplemental BLA with priority review on May 14.

Shaking up corporate and pipeline structure, San Diego-based cancer developer Erasca Inc. in-licensed two assets from China-based biopharmas in all-cash deals, while laying off 18% of its workforce, primarily in drug discovery. The flurry of announcements made on May 16, which included $160 million raised in private placement, showed that Erasca would scrap three existing pipeline assets – ERAS-007, ERAS-801 and ERAS-4 – and reshape development to a RAS-targeting franchise.

India’s first indigenous CAR T therapy is expected to cost around $50,000, nearly one-tenth of the price of top-selling CAR Ts in the U.S. India President Droupadi Murmu officially launched Immunoadoptive Cell Therapy’s (Immunoact) NexCAR19 (actalycabtagene autoleucel), a CD19-targeted CAR T, and dedicated it to the nation in April 2024.