Company News

AbbVie Inc, which for years marketed Humira, a former blockbuster medicine, is to replenish its portfolio with the acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech company with candidate products for inflammatory and immunological diseases. Announced on 22 June, the all-cash transaction values Apogee at $135.11 per share or approximately $10.9 billion. This represents a premium of about 49.5% over Apogee’s closing price on Nasdaq the day before the announcement.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new carbapenem antibiotic from GSK Plc to treat complicated urinary tract infections – the first oral treatment of its kind for the disease. The authorisation, announced on 17 June, is for Utebzi (tebipenem pivoxil), a broad-spectrum carbapenem antibiotic of the beta-lactam class. The treatment will be available as a tablet, in addition to its availability as an in-hospital intravenous therapy.

uniQure NV has reached an agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration to proceed with a marketing authorisation application for its gene therapy for Huntington’s disease, a rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder. The application is expected to be filed in the third quarter of this year, the company announced on 17 June.

Ona Therapeutics SL, a 2019 spin-out from a Spanish research institute and foundation, has raised $86.6 million from venture capitalists to advance a portfolio of early-stage antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for refractory cancers. The Series B round was co-led by Columbus Venture Partners of Spain and Mérieux Equity Partners of France. They were joined by the existing Spain-based investors Alta Life Sciences and Asabys Partners and Bpifrance, the French public investment bank.

GSK Plc is to acquire the US oncology developer Nuvalent Inc for $10.6 billion, giving it two late-stage products for non-small cell lung cancer to complement its own Phase 3 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for a different lung cancer. The deal, which will be financed with new and existing debt facilities, also gives the UK company a third lung cancer drug in Phase 1 and a preclinical portfolio of undisclosed cancer assets.

A biotechnology company in Scotland, backed by Archangel Investors Ltd, made its first public appearance on 8 June as a potential player in the rapidly expanding field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Emerging from stealth mode, Bead BioPharma Ltd disclosed its leadership and technology for the first time. The company’s interim chief executive is Dan Ozanne a serial entrepreneur, and its chair is Mike Sun. Mr Sun formerly worked for Seattle Genetics Inc (now Seagen), a pioneer in ADC field. Bead BioPharma has reportedly raised $1.14 million since its founding in 2023.

Collaborative networks have been a driving force for innovation across the life sciences for decades. They connect universities, governments and venture capitalists to create conditions for the launch of new companies. The ecosystem around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, US, is probably the best-known incubator of new companies.  Less common are ecosystems focused on a single therapeutic area. This is the unique feature of a new cluster in France called The Hive and Campus Grand Parc, located in outer Paris.

US-based POP Biotechnologies Inc has announced that the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is to provide up to $9.7 million in additional funding to help advance the company’s SNAP (Spontaneous Nanoliposome Antigen Particle) protein vaccine platform into a Phase 1 clinical trial. The deal builds on an initial $1.5 million investment from CEPI announced in July 2025, which supported early-stage research into the technology.

AstraZeneca Plc has reported positive results in two Phase 2b trials for a candidate obesity and diabetes drug with potentially broad applications for cardiometabolic and kidney diseases. The drug, elecoglipron, is a small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist that can be taken as a pill. It was in-licenced from Eccogene (Shanghai) Co Ltd in 2023 to be the backbone of AstraZeneca’s prospective treatments for obesity and weight-related diseases. By taking a broad therapeutic approach, the company argues that it could chart a new path for obesity treatment in the future. 

Abivax SA has confirmed plans to submit a new drug application for obefazimod, its candidate product for ulcerative colitis, to the US Food and Drug Administration late in the fourth quarter. This follows results from a Phase 3 trial that showed strong efficacy. The small molecule drug upregulates a microRNA known as miR124 in order to stabilise the immune response in patients with ulcerative colitis, a disease that affects the colon.