Lianbio Co. Ltd. gained its first Asian approval in Macau for Camzyos (mavacamten/Myokardia Inc.) for treating adults with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM). The company in-licensed mavacamten rights from Myokardia, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb Co., in August 2020 for developing and commercializing mavacamten in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. Mavacamten was granted breakthrough therapy designation in China in February 2022 for patients with oHCM.
Roche AG acquired global rights to Zion Pharma Ltd.’s lead program, ZN-A-1041, an orally administered selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is designed to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and can prevent and treat brain metastases in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients.
China’s NMPA gave the nod to Roche Diagnostics (Shanghai) Ltd.’s anti-preferentially expressed antigen in melanoma (PRAME) (EPR 20330) that could help to speed up melanoma diagnosis and improve survival rates.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has out-licensed its phase I-ready autoimmune disease candidate, DWP-213388, to new spinout company Vitalli Bio in a deal worth up to $477 million.
Albatroz Therapeutics Pte Ltd. has secured $3 million in seed funding to develop therapeutic antibodies against a new target that degrades the extracellular matrix, a key contributor to cancer and arthritis.
Specialised Therapeutics Asia Pte Ltd. has inked a $73 million deal with CTTQ-Akeso Biomed Tech. Co. Ltd. to buy the rights to commercialize the latter’s anti-PD-1 antibody in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Biontech SE has tapped into two of Duality Biologics Co. Ltd.’s antibody-drug conjugate candidates (ADCs), paying Duality $170 million up front and agreeing on development, regulatory and commercial milestone fees of $1.5 billion or more.
Biorchestra Co. Ltd. reached an exclusive research, option and licensing contract with a U.S.-based company to use its targeting technology platform to develop nucleic acid therapies to treat neurological disorders in a deal valued up to $861 million.
Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd. and Rxilient Biotech Pte Ltd. are forming a joint venture (JV) to develop and commercialize Junshi’s PD-1 inhibitor, toripalimab, in nine Southeast Asian nations.
China’s NMPA granted conditional approval for a COVID-19 oral pill to treat adult patients with mild to moderate cases of the virus to a unit of Guangdong Zhongsheng Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.