Sanofi SA’s decision to acquire the US synthetic biology company Synthorx Inc gives the French multinational new tools for expanding its oncology portfolio. Sanofi announced the takeover on 9 December, just a day before its new chief executive, Paul Hudson, briefed investors on the company’s R&D strategy going forward. This will focus on rare diseases, immunology and oncology, while discontinuing research in diabetes and cardiovascular medicine.
Forendo Pharma Ltd, whose lead product is being developed for endometriosis, has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Novartis to use the same technology platform to discover new drugs for chronic liver diseases. The deal, announced on 11 December, is a further validation of the company’s technology for inhibiting a family of enzymes called HSD17B (17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydregonase) which play a role in multiple diseases.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is to enlist the help of a UK company specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) to identify new indications for rare neurological diseases. The partnership, with Healx Ltd of the UK, involves exploiting assets that are already in BI’s portfolio. The financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
Edinburgh, UK-based Epidarex Capital is to put more money behind company creation in the life science industry with the launch of a dedicated incubator, Epidarex Exeed Ltd. Epidarex Exeed will de-risk promising scientific assets and provide management support to prepare prospective companies for launch and Series A financing. Seed funding for the young companies will be provided by Epidarex Capital.
A Swiss company with a strategy for stimulating natural killer (NK) cells to treat cancer has raised CHF 15 million ($15.24 million) to complete the first human trials of a protein therapeutic for the potential treatment of both solid and liquid tumours. ImmunOs Therapeutics AG secured the funding from a syndicate co-led by BioMedPartners and Pfizer Ventures. ImmunOs is a spin-out of the University of Zurich and the University of Basel.
Merck & Co Inc is to acquire the cancer drug developer ArQule Inc in order to gain access to a small molecule drug for the treatment of B-cell malignancies. The value of the transaction is $2.7 billion and features a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, ARQ 531, currently in Phase 2 clinical development. The deal, agreed by both parties, is expected to close early in the 2020 first quarter.
Novartis has enlisted the services of Amazon Web Services Inc to make its manufacturing and delivery operations more efficient. This involves using digital technology to enable people across the company to forecast and track production, detect bottlenecks and make adjustments to the system in real time. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA has pledged to invest €350 million over five years to bring a new formulation of inhaler for respiratory diseases to the market with the goal of reducing the carbon footprint of these devices. The company is believed to be the first in the pharmaceutical industry to publicly commit to a lower the carbon footprint for aerosol inhalers. It announced the plan at the United Nations Climate Change Conference on 4 December.
The UK medical charity LifeArc has extended a research collaboration with Metrion Biosciences Ltd with the goal of identifying new compounds for neurological diseases using Metrion’s ion channel drug discovery technology. The year-old collaboration is being extended for a further 12 months.
“The success to date of this novel small molecule programme with Metrion is very motivating, especially as this lies in one of our three priority therapy areas,” said Justin Bryans, executive director for drug discovery at LifeArc. The therapy areas were not disclosed.
A French company that is working on antibody therapeutics for cancer indications has raised $53 million (€48 million) in a Series B round in order to take its lead product into the clinic. ImCheck Therapeutics SAS is developing a compound that targets a member of the butyrophilin family of checkpoint molecules and engages gamma delta T cells to fight cancer.