Finance, Grants, Deals

Sanofi SA is investing €80 million in BioNTech AG equity, substantially increasing its commitment to the German company’s messenger RNA technology. Simultaneously the two companies have agreed to co-develop the first product from a research collaboration dating from 2015.

In the first major pharma transaction of 2019, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co has announced plans to acquire Celgene Corp in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $74 billion. The deal will combine the two companies’ oncology and inflammation franchises along with a large development portfolio featuring cell-based gene therapies for cancer.

The Belgium-based cell therapy company Promethera Biosciences SA has raised €10 million from the Japanese conglomerate Itochu Corp as part of an ongoing Series D financing round to advance its portfolio of experimental medicines for chronic liver failure, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and fibrosis.

As part of the financing, Tajio Enoki, head of the medical business team in the energy and chemicals unit of Itochu, will join Promethera’s Board of Directors.

Novartis is proposing to acquire the contract manufacturer CellforCure of France in order to boost capacity for the manufacture of cell and gene therapies. Financial terms of the proposed transaction were not disclosed.

Evox Therapeutics Ltd is to use its exosome-based technology to work on prospective delivery approaches for an anti-infective drug from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Separately, the company also appointed Edwin Moses, the former Ablynx chief executive, as non-executive chairman of its board of directors.

Novo Holdings A/S is providing $15 million in Series A financing for the launch of a new San Diego, US-based company with plans to build a portfolio of drugs targeting serious inflammatory diseases. Aristea Therapeutics Inc will use the funds to start a Phase 2 trial of a small molecule anti-inflammatory drug in-licensed from AstraZeneca Plc called RIST4721.

In connection with the financing, Tiba Aynechi and Ken Harrison from Novo Ventures (US) Inc, which is owned by Novo Holdings, will join Aristea’s Board of Directors.

Summit Therapeutics Plc plans to raise $25 million in a private share placement that will finance a Phase 3 clinical programme of the investigational antibiotic ridinilazole for the treatment of Clostridium difficile.

The funds will also support a product to treat gonorrhoea which is poised to enter Phase 1 and a group of discovery assets targeting pathogens (ESKAPE pathogens) that are responsible for the majority of nosocomial infections in the world.

Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG has raised CHF 23.5 million (€20.82 million) in a share placement to complete the acquisition of rights to vamorolone, a synthetic glucocorticoid corticosteroid which is being developed for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

e-Therapeutics Plc is to collaborate with Novo Nordisk A/S to discover potentially novel therapeutic approaches for treating a specific area of Type 2 diabetes. The two companies will use e-Therapeutics’ discovery platform to identify new biological pathways and compounds.

The agreement lasts 12 months. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Argenx NV has secured a licensing agreement for its early-stage antibody drug cusatuzumab with Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies to develop the drug for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Announced on 3 December, the deal features an upfront cash payment of $300 million and potential milestones of $1.3 billion.