muscle building exercise

Roche’s Genentech unit has licensed global rights outside South Korea to HM17321, Hanmi Pharm’s Phase 1 obesity candidate. The deal gives Hanmi $190 million (€163 million) upfront and could be worth up to $2.3 billion (€2.0 billion), including development, regulatory and commercial milestones. Hanmi is also eligible for tiered royalties on future sales.

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Sweden’s Hansa Biopharma has confidentially filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential initial public offering of American depositary shares.

Stockholm-based Pixelgen Technologies has raised $15.5 million in an oversubscribed Series B round to expand commercialization of its Proxiome platform. The Swedish company is targeting a gap in single-cell analysis: mapping how proteins are organized on the surface of individual cells, rather than simply measuring their abundance.

A Phase III win for Moderna and Merck’s personalized mRNA cancer vaccine has reignited investor enthusiasm for mRNA — and put BioNTech back in the spotlight. But the data are more important than the stock rally: for the first time, a personalized mRNA cancer therapy has produced positive Phase III data in a major indication.

AstraZeneca has discontinued a pivotal Phase III trial of its dual checkpoint inhibitor volrustomig in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), after an independent committee concluded that the study was unlikely to meet its primary endpoints. The setback comes as the company faces growing pressure to deliver new oncology products.

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has cleared Merck KGaA’s planned acquisition of U.S. life sciences tools company Bio-Techne, removing one of the key regulatory hurdles to the €9.9 billion deal.

The European Commission has revoked the marketing authorization for Tavneos (avacopan) in ANCA-associated vasculitis, citing unreliable efficacy data from the pivotal ADVOCATE trial and serious liver safety concerns. The decision removes Europe’s only approved targeted therapy for the rare autoimmune disease – potentially opening the door for next-generation complement inhibitors.

The Copenhagen-based biomanufacturing company is acquiring Genomatica, bringing Geno’s computational biology and industrial biotech expertise into a platform designed to move from pathway discovery to commercial-scale production. The deal highlights a broader shift in industrial biotech: AI is moving beyond molecule design and into the engineering of how biology is manufactured.

There’s uncertainty and concern about whether AI will replace humans in workplaces. But Marco Ravot-Licheri, Head of Digital – Life Sciences Business at Tecan, told us that AI could increase laboratory productivity and make research more meaningful.

Swiss clinical-stage biotech Vaderis Therapeutics has raised $152 million in a Series B round to advance engasertib into Phase 3 for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). The financing, backed by a broad syndicate of specialist investors, gives the company a potentially decisive runway toward registration for a disease with no approved therapy.