Sotyktu (deucravacitinib), the tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor for psoriasis from Bristol Myers Squibb Co., is “a good first-in-class” drug, said Nimbus Therapeutics LLC CEO Jeb Keiper, but his firm may have the best in class, ready for phase III trials. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. apparently believes so. The company has agreed to pay $4 billion up front and pledge as much as $2 billion more in potential milestone payments to acquire Nimbus’s wholly owned subsidiary, Nimbus Lakshmi Inc., thereby bringing aboard the TYK2 prospect called NDI-034858.
A combination of radiation therapy and CD47 blockade induced an abscopal effect in animal studies even in animals that lacked T cells, researchers reported in the Nov. 21, 2022, online issue of Nature Cancer.
Zenas Biopharma LLC has raised $118 million in a series B round to support a global phase III trial of its lead asset as well as other immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases in its pipeline. The study, expected to begin in 2023, will evaluate obexelimab for the treatment of patients with immunoglobulin G4-related disease in late 2022.
Maxinovel Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised ¥100 million (US$13.8 million) in a series C+ round to develop its candidates for acute myeloid leukemia, solid tumors, and autoimmune diseases.
Worg Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. raised nearly ¥400 million (US$55.6 million) in its series B financing. Founded in 2018, the company is developing immunotherapies to treat allergic and autoimmune diseases and other indications based on its two technology platforms, Pcfit and Apitope.
CSPC NBP Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. entered an agreement that will grant it exclusive rights to Harbour Biomed Co. Ltd.’s anti-FcRn antibody, batoclimab (HBM-9161), in greater China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Simcere Pharmaceutical Group has out-licensed its autoimmune drug candidate SIM-0278 for all indications to Almirall SA in a deal worth up to $507 million. Simcere granted exclusive global rights to the candidate to Almirall for development and commercialization excluding mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. In return, Almirall will pay Simcere $15 million up front.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022 was awarded to Svante Pääbo today "for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution." Pääbo, who is currently the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues overcame extreme technical challenges to sequence the DNA of ancient hominids – because after tens of thousands of years, there is no such thing as aging well for DNA.
Innocare Pharma Ltd. raised ¥2.92 billion (US$412 million) in a second listing on the Shanghai STAR Market. Its shares opened at ¥10.86 apiece, sliding 15.4% to close at ¥9.33 on the first trading day, Sept. 21. The company will use the proceeds to support cancer and autoimmune drug R&D, improve its drug development platform, build its sales network, and upgrade its information technology, said Chief Commercial Officer Jin Xiaodong.
RSS
