Bristol Myers Squibb Co announced a drug discovery and development agreement with Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd on 12 May which is expected to yield 13 new products across the oncology, haematology, and immunology sectors and be commercialised across the globe. The deal comes as Hengrui is expanding its market presence outside China and BMS is taking steps to generate new revenue in response to a loss of patent protection on some important medicines.
A panel of life science investors raised concerns at the AngloNordic conference in London on 23 April that early-stage biotech companies are struggling to raise finance. Stephen Hansen, director of biopharma intelligence at BioCentury, cited data showing pre-clinical companies made up 41-42% of financings in 2021/22, but just 25% in 2025. He worried that a vital part of the biotech sector was being neglected in favour of clinical stage ventures, saying: "Somebody's got to be making companies....
UCB SA announced on 3 May that it has signed an agreement to acquire Candid Therapeutics Inc of San Diego, US, broadening its portfolio to include biologics targeting autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The Belgium-based biopharma company already has marketed products for epilepsy, plaque psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease. The acquisition will add preclinical and early clinical-stage products to UCB’s portfolio, the most advanced of which are bispecific T cell engagers. These are antibodies that can bind T cells to tumour cells to kill cancers.
Seaport Therapeutics Inc, a spin-out of Boston, US-based PureTech Health Plc, priced an initial public offering of its shares on 1 May yielding $254.9 million. The IPO comes only two years after the company’s launch and follows positive early clinical data for its lead product SPT-300 which is an oral prodrug of a neurosteroid that plays a key role in mood regulation. The drug has progressed to Phase 2b and is being investigated as a treatment for major depressive disorder.
Jeito Capital closed its second private equity fund, Jeito II, on 8 April with a call to the pharmaceutical industry to meet the challenge of the patent cliff by producing more innovative new medicines for patients. Significant new financing will be available for companies that do this following the close of Jeito II which raised €1 billion, above expectations and about double the size of Jeito I which attracted €534 million in 2021. The new fund is expected to supply capital to 15 to 20 companies with larger amounts than in the past.
France-based Kurma Partners SA announced the final closing of a new fund on 23 April to support start-up companies, largely in Europe, which show promise of developing medicines for serious or incurable diseases. The final close of Biofund IV, at €215 million, is about a third higher than the size of Biofund III, its predecessor, and was supported by several large institutions. They include the Australian pharmaceutical company CSL Ltd, the European Investment Fund, and Bpifrance, the French national investment bank.
Kailera Therapeutics Inc, a venture capital-backed enterprise with obesity assets in-licensed from China, has raised $625 million from an initial public offering on Nasdaq, one of the largest biotech IPOs in recent years. The funds will be used to advance the company’s lead product ribupatide, currently in global Phase 3 trials, as well as three other candidate obesity treatments that cover several mechanisms of action and methods of delivery.
Tubulis GmbH, a 2019 German university spin-out, is to be acquired by Gilead Sciences Inc for up to $5 billion – one of the larger biopharma transactions in Europe this year. Announced on 7 April, the deal involves an upfront payment of $3.15 billion and potential milestones of $1.85 billion for ownership of an early clinical-stage portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer. As part of the agreement, Tubulis’ scientists and other staff will remain at their current location in Munich which will serve as a hub for ADC innovation for Gilead as a whole.
Eli Lilly and Company signalled its intention to broaden its neuroscience portfolio on 31 March with the planned acquisition of Centessa Pharmaceuticals Plc, a Nasdaq-listed developer of treatments for sleep-wake disorders. Centessa is developing a pipeline of orexin receptor 2 (OX2R) agonists. The lead product, cleminorexton, is in Phase 2a clinical studies for the treatment of two types of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, all chronic neurological disorders affecting sleep.
The Belgian biotech Galapagos NV has signed a binding agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc giving it rights to a prospective T cell therapy programme targeting autoimmune diseases. Concluded on 31 March, the deal centres on an early clinical-stage bispecific antibody designed to link a patient’s T cells to the B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) on plasma cells. In this way, it would eliminate pathogenic B cells and plasma cells in order to reduce inflammation and treat autoimmune diseases.