Abingworth LLP, the London-based investment group, has created a new fund to invest in late-stage life science assets that are being developed by two of its portfolio companies under contract with the pharmaceutical industry.
Netherlands-based Mucosis BV has secured a £2.77 million award from the Wellcome Trust to take an experimental vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) into the clinic. RSV is a virus that causes lung and airway infections in infants and young children.
The neuroscience sector took a further step towards consolidation on 19 January with an agreed bid by Acorda Therapeutics Inc for Finland’s Biotie Therapies Oyj which has a late-stage compound for Parkinson’s disease in the clinic and royalty revenue from a product for alcohol dependence. The deal is valued at about $363 million.
Argenx NV, which engineers antibodies originating in llamas, has announced plans to sell about €16 million worth of its shares to funds managed by Federated Investors Inc of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, one of the US’s largest funds with more than $350 billion under management.
Galapagos NV and AbbVie Inc have announced progress in their cystic fibrosis drug collaboration and restated their goal of developing a combination therapy for patients with the most common genetic defect – the Delta F508 mutation.
Nestlé Health Science has made a further financial commitment to the microbiome with an agreement to fund development and eventually market products to treat infection and inflammatory disorders being developed by Seres Therapeutics Inc.
Merck & Co Inc has taken another step to bolster its immuno-oncology pipeline with the acquisition of privately-owned IOmet Pharma of Scotland and its pre-clinical portfolio of small molecule drugs targeting enzymes involved in a number of cancers.
F-star Biotechnology Ltd has secured a new partner to help it exploit its bispecific antibody platform for cancer therapies. AbbVie Inc has now joined Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), Merck Serono and Boehringer Ingelheim as research partners of the UK-based company.
Shire Plc is to buy Baxalta Inc for about $32 billion in cash and shares after some six months of negotiation in which Shire obtained professional advice that the transaction would be tax-free to Baxalta shareholders, who are to end up with 34% of the combined company.
The human microbiome took front stage in early January 2016 when two large pharma companies sealed drug discovery deals with France-based Enterome Bioscience SA, a pioneer in microbiome research.