Italian pharma Recordati has entered into a license agreement with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for exclusive development and marketing rights to zilganersen, an investigational RNA-targeted medicine for the treatment of Alexander disease (AxD), in all countries outside the U.S.
ADC Therapeutics will cut about 17% of its global workforce as it tries to preserve cash and keep Zynlonta’s regulatory strategy on track after a difficult Phase III readout.
Novartis has signed a multi-target oncology discovery deal with Antares Therapeutics, paying $105m upfront for access to the Boston biotech’s small-molecule discovery engine. The agreement could bring Antares up to $1.8bn more in option, development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on global net sales that could reach the low double-digit range.
Dutch biotech Leyden Labs has raised €40m from a group of investors to advance its nasal spray approach for protection against influenza and other respiratory viruses.
London’s RQ Bio, a private biotech developing long-acting antibody therapeutics to prevent flu, has raised $115 million (£85.5 million/€101 million) in its Series A financing.
Thalia Therapeutics is acquiring Sanmirna Therapeutics for an initial £3.675 million and up to £13 million in milestone payments, adding the clinical-stage acute myeloid leukemia (AML) candidate miRisten and transforming the company from a preclinical platform into a clinical-stage RNA therapeutics company.
Merck KGaA has partnered with Versant Ventures to launch Saturnus Bio, a new biotech developing precision medicines for rare genetic cardiomyopathies.
UK-based TRIMTECH Therapeutics has raised an additional $14 million, bringing its total seed financing to $47 million.
Sanofi’s Cenrifki (tolebrutinib) has been approved in the EU as the first disability-targeting medicine for adults with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) without relapses in the previous two years.
Recent preclinical data published in Molecular Therapy suggest the company may be closer than ever to answering that question. Its platform did not emerge from a single discovery programme, but from a sequence of acquisitions that brought together the key ingredients for in vivo cell engineering: mRNA payloads, lipid nanoparticle delivery, and targeted immune-cell guidance. Across big pharma, companies are increasingly assembling in vivo CAR-T platforms piece by piece, raising a broader question about whether the next generation of cell therapy will be built in-house, or bought.