Chinese biotechs Biotheus Inc. and Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. partnered again under a new potential ¥5 billion (US$698.98 million) deal to develop bispecific antibody-drug conjugates (BsADCs), using Biotheus’ EGFR-cMet bispecific antibody.
Hyundai Bioscience Corp. is set to become the largest shareholder of ADM Korea Inc., a Seoul, South Korea-based contract research organization (CRO) firm, by purchasing 5.02 million shares for ₩20.4 billion (US$15.5 million) – a 23% stake.
Asieris Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd plans to submit a China NDA in the second quarter following positive phase III data for its cold light photodynamic drug-device combination product, Cevira, which is used as nonsurgical therapy for treating high-grade cervical dysplasia.
Samsung Life Science Fund, created jointly by Samsung Biologics Co. Ltd., Samsung Biopeis Co. Ltd. and Samsung C&T Corp., said it invested in Waltham, Mass.-based antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer Brickbio Inc. on March 18, as its fifth biotech investment.
China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved Kechow Pharma Inc.’s MEK inhibitor, tunlametinib, for treatment of patients with NRAS-mutated advanced melanoma who were previously treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. The Center for Drug Evaluation granted tunlametinib a priority review. The approval marks the first targeted therapy for this patient population and the first product that originated from Kechow, a privately held firm founded in 2014 to develop small-molecule therapeutics against cancer.
Yuhan Corp., of Seoul, South Korea, added a new potential cancer drug to its oncology pipeline, licensing a son of sevenless homolog 1 (SOS1) inhibitor co-developed by Cyrus Therapeutics Inc. and Kanaph Therapeutics Inc. for ₩208 billion (US$156.3 million).
After spending 20 years at Novartis, Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd. CEO Riccardo Canevari told BioWorld that when he joined Radiopharm he wanted to focus on something different within radiopharmaceuticals where no one was playing. “I believe these new modalities are at the beginning of their potential, much like in the immuno-oncology space years ago. That’s a nice place to be,” he said, but it’s not only about competition, it’s also about understanding what other companies are doing and if there is a disease area or a mechanism of action that is not being explored, he said.
Seven years since the first approval of two chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies for hematological cancers, U.S. and Singapore-based Immunoscape Pte Ltd. is looking to develop novel T-cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics for solid tumors.
The EMA validated two marketing approval applications of Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Astrazeneca plc’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) datopotamab deruxtecan (dato-dxd) on Mar. 4, for two types of lung and breast cancer.
A new spinout from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, is tackling biology to better understand immune cell function and to find targets that were thought to be undruggable.