News

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.

New long-term data for the cancer therapy Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) have shown that nearly half of patients treated with the cell-based gene therapy were alive three years after treatment. The long-term data were presented on 7 December at the American Society of Hematology meeting in the US, and are similar to outcome data reported in 2017.

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.

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.

ViGeneron GmbH, a spin-out of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, has closed a Series A funding round enabling it to advance two viral vector-based gene therapy platforms and develop two programmes for ophthalmic indications. The size of the funding was not disclosed. It was led by WuXi AppTec Group and Sequoia Capital of China.

Kiadis Pharma NV has changed course and will in future focus its cell therapy capabilities on the development of natural killer (NK) cell products for the treatment of liquid and solid tumours. The Netherlands-based company acquired a portfolio of NK cell assets with the takeover of CytoSen Therapeutics Inc of the US in April.

Novartis has moved aggressively to expand its cardiovascular portfolio with an agreed bid for The Medicines Company, valued at $9.7 billion. The US company’s lead product, inclisiran, is a small interfering RNA drug for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and familial hypercholesterolemia. The Medicines Company expects to make regulatory submissions in the US before the end of 2019 and in Europe in the first quarter of 2020.