Merck & Co. Inc. has turned to Asia for a second time to get into the GLP-1 market, this time to Shanghai-based Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. for its investigational preclinical oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist. Hansoh is getting $112 million up front and could bring in another $1.9 billion in milestone payments. Merck said the addition to its GLP-1 arsenal is “to provide additional cardiometabolic benefits beyond weight reduction.”
Onconic Therapeutics Inc., a subsidiary of Jeil Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., saw its shares (KOSDAQ:476060) ascend for two consecutive days after debuting with a ₩20.15 billion (US$13.89 million) IPO on the Korea Exchange Dec. 19. Seoul, South Korea-based Onconic’s Kosdaq IPO offered about 1.55 million shares at ₩13,000 each, which was lowered from its original price band of ₩16,000 to ₩18,000 per share after demand forecasting.
China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved Innovent Biologics Inc.’s NDA for Dovbleron (taletrectinib), a next-generation ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), for treating adults with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have been previously treated with ROS1 TKIs.
Kura Oncology, Inc. and Kyowa Kirin Co. Ltd.’s selective oral menin inhibitor ziftomenib showed encouraging data across multiple studies, the most encouraging of which were in combination with other standard of care therapies in patients with NPM1-mutant and KMT2A-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. gained approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee in Australia to start phase I/II trials of GBP-560, its mRNA-based vaccine candidate for mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus, with funding from Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is progressing synthetic antibiotic Recce-327 to pivotal phase III trials in Indonesia for the treatment of diabetic foot infections. The trial, which is assessing Recce-327 as a topical gel (R327G), is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025, Recce CEO James Graham told BioWorld.
Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA scored €44 million (US$46.26 million) up front in a potential €117 million licensing deal with EA Pharma Co. Ltd. to pad the clinical runway of its late-stage oral schizophrenia asset, evenamide (NW-3509), sending company stock prices up near 20%.
Caliway Biopharmaceuticals’ lipolysis candidate, CBL-514, met all the primary and secondary efficacy endpoints in a phase IIb study for subcutaneous fat reduction, paving the way for the company to begin a global pivotal phase III study in 2025.
GC Biopharma Corp. will buy plasma collector Abo Holdings Inc. in a ₩138 billion (US$96.28 million) cash acquisition as the vaccine and plasma-derived medicinal products developer works to accelerate entry of Alyglo (IVIG-SN 10%) in the U.S., where it was approved last year.
Beigene Ltd. struck a global licensing deal with CSPC Zhongqi Pharmaceutical Technology (Shijiazhuang) Co. Ltd. worth up to $1.5 billion for its phase I selective methionine adenosyltransferase 2A (MAT2A) inhibitor, SYH-2039, which is being explored for solid tumors.
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