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.
In addition to the current and future cash payments, Janssen will purchase $200 million of newly issued Argenx shares representing 4.68% of the Belgian company’s outstanding shares at a price of €100.02 per share.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has taken a major step to rebuild its oncology portfolio with the agreed acquisition of Tesaro, Inc for $5.1 billion which has a poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor on the market for the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer. This drug is Zejula (niraparib).
The Germany-based biotech company, Adrenomed AG, has raised €24 million in a Series D financing round to secure the clinical development of a new medicine for septic shock, a life-threatening condition that occurs when a person’s blood pressure drops after an infection.
Evotec AG has launched a new drug discovery collaboration involving artificial intelligence – this time to identify small molecules to treat rare hereditary metabolic diseases. The partner is Immuneering Corp of Cambridge, Massachusetts which is 51% controlled by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
Immuneering applies AI and other advanced algorithms to data derived from high throughput screening. The goal is to identify molecular structures that could form the basis of new medicines.
Boston Scientific Corp has reached agreement with the board of BTG Plc on the terms of a takeover offer which values the UK specialty pharma company at £3.3 billion. The deal will be executed through Bravo Bidco Ltd, an entity indirectly owned by the US company.
Boston Scientific is offering 840 pence in cash per share of BTG. This represents a premium of 36.6% to the BTG closing share price of 615 pence on 19 November and a 51% premium to the company’s 90-day volume-weighted average share price for the period ended 19 November.
Immunocore Ltd is expanding a 2013 collaboration with Genentech (Roche) to co-develop a bi-specific biologic for cancer. The compound is based on soluble T cell receptors that have been designed to recognize intracellular cancer antigens, and then kill cancer cells through an anti-CD3 effector function.
In this case, the targets are tumours expressing the melanoma-associated antigen A4. Called IMC-C103C, the molecule is poised to enter clinical development in early 2019.
The UK artificial intelligence company Exscientia Ltd has expanded its drug discovery resource with the acquisition of Kinetic Discovery Ltd, a protein engineering specialist. The transaction follows Exscientia’s expansion in Oxford where it is bringing computer scientists, drug designers and biologists under one roof to work on algorithm development for drug discovery. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) has agreed to pay up to $1.5 billion upfront to AstraZeneca Plc for US rights to Synagis (palivizumab), an off-patent medicine for the prevention of serious lower respiratory tract infection caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and young children.
The upfront payment consists of cash and newly issued Sobi shares which will give AstraZeneca an equity interest in the Swedish company of about 8%.