In a potential watershed moment for South Korea’s Hanmi Group, a hair-splitting vote at the 51st shareholder meeting favored the two sons of the late founder and Chairman Lim Sung-ki, effectively halting a merger between Hanmi and OCI Holdings Co. Ltd.
South Korean confectionary giant Orion Holdings Inc. has completed the acquisition of antibody-drug conjugate developer Ligachem Biosciences Inc., which recently changed its name from Legochem Bioscience Inc.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare approved Astellas Pharma Inc.’s Vyloy (zolbetuximab) to treat a type of advanced gastric cancer on March 26, making it the first anti-claudin 18.2 monoclonal antibody to gain regulatory clearance worldwide.
Clarity Pharmaceuticals Ltd. raised AU$121 million (US$79.29 million) through a private placement that will fund the company’s radiopharma pipeline comprising targeted copper therapies out to early 2026.
Kazia Therapeutics Ltd. has out-licensed paxalisib as a potential treatment for intractable epilepsy in focal cortical dysplasia type 2 and tuberous sclerosis complex disease in a carve-out deal with Sovargen Co. Ltd. for $20.5 million plus sales royalties.
Triarm Therapeutics Ltd. is on a mission to democratize CAR T therapies to make them more accessible and affordable, Triarm CEO Jay Zhang told BioWorld. “Nearly half of the patients eligible for CAR T therapies still cannot get treated, and the main reason is the expense, and the second is they cannot afford to wait.
As investment in Asia biohubs continues into 2024, Merck KGaA’s Milliporesigma is the latest to drop more than €300 million (US$328 million) into a new bioprocessing production center in Daejeon, South Korea.
Nuvation Bio Inc. said on March 25 it will acquire Anheart Therapeutics Ltd., a U.S.- and China-based precision oncology company, in an all-stock transaction, adding Anheart’s ROS1-inhibiting lung cancer drug, taletrectinib (AB-106), to its pipeline.
China’s National Medical Products Administration has cleared China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Ltd. to advance radiopharmaceutical agent ITM-11 (177Lu-edotreotide) to phase III trials in gastroenteropancreatic-neuroendocrine tumors
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.