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But we are proud to say that Victor Kotsev contributed 24 entries already.
Swiss big pharma Roche has agreed to license ZW209, an experimental cancer immunotherapy from Vancouver-based Zymeworks, for $55 million upfront and up to $758 million more in conditional payments, plus royalties on future sales. The agreement returns Roche to DLL3, a lung cancer target it previously pursued with a different antibody.
Switzerland’s Roche has discontinued RG6540, an experimental off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy targeting the CD19 and CD20 proteins, less than two years after agreeing to acquire its developer, Poseida Therapeutics, for up to $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion). Roche has not explained the reasons for the decision, but CEO Thomas Schinecker told reporters that the acquisition had yielded other CD19/CD20 candidates he considers superior.
Italy’s Menarini Group will pay Maryland biotech Georgiamune $45 million (€40 million) in upfront and near-term payments, in a deal worth up to $1.1 billion (€1.0 billion) plus royalties, for worldwide rights to an oral cancer immunotherapy that has yet to enter human trials.
An experimental oral drug for early Alzheimer’s disease has produced positive Phase 1 results, including shifts in spinal-fluid markers of brain immune activity and neuronal stress in older volunteers toward levels seen in younger people, Danish biotech Muna Therapeutics reported. The drug, MNA-001, was also well tolerated, with no serious adverse events or adverse-event-related discontinuations reported.
Icelandic biotech Arctic Therapeutics has raised $21.5 million (€19.1 million) in an oversubscribed round to take two drug candidates for autoimmune disease toward the clinic.
U.K. microbiome company Microbiotica has raised £36 million (€43 million), the first close of a Series C round led by the British Business Bank, to take its ulcerative colitis drug MB310 into Phase 2.
Lakefront Biotherapeutics, formerly Galapagos, has sold five preclinical CAR-T assets to Belgian startup Armed Cell Therapeutics for €8 million upfront, while India’s Mankind Pharma has agreed to acquire 70% of the buyer for €48 million.
Italy’s Newron Pharmaceuticals has disclosed that the FDA kept U.S. enrollment in a Phase 3 trial of its schizophrenia drug evenamide on hold, citing five deaths across all the drug’s clinical studies. The company will ask the agency to lift the hold by screening patients for hidden heart-rhythm disorders, including with genetic tests.
Genmab and AbbVie’s bispecific antibody epcoritamab, added to R-CHOP chemoimmunotherapy, cut the risk of progression or death by 51% in a Phase 3 trial in newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
Novo Nordisk will pay China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals $300 million (€264 million) upfront, in a deal worth up to $2.6 billion (€2.3 billion), for rights outside Greater China to HRS-1596, an experimental obesity and diabetes pill that the companies say could be taken once a week.