News

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.

A new treatment for sleeping sickness, a life-threatening tropical disease, has received a positive review by the European Medicines Agency, paving the way for its approval in sub-Saharan Africa where the illness is endemic. The medicine, Fexinidazole Winthrop (fexinidazole), was developed through a collaboration between Sanofi SA and the non-profit organisation, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi).

The antibody-drug conjugate Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) has received a new lymphoma indication from the US Food and Drug Administration under a procedure that allows the agency to study key clinical data for the compound prior to its formal regulatory application.

AstraZeneca Plc’s Phase 3 trial of the Imfinzi and tremelimumab checkpoint antibodies did not meet the primary endpoint of improving overall survival compared with standard-of-care chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with Stage IV metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, the company announced on 16 November. This follows the failure of the same combination in July 2017 to reach statistical significance in progression-free survival.

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.

The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing a waiver to the legal requirement on pharma companies to obtain informed patient consent for certain low-risk clinical trials. The proposal would amend a provision of the 21^st Century Cures Act to add an exception to the consent requirement.

The proposed rule, if finalized, would allow the institutional review board (IRB) responsible for the review and approval of clinical research to waive or alter certain elements of informed consent, or to waive the requirement entirely, under limited circumstances.

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%.

Evotec AG powered ahead in the first nine months of 2018 as its contract service provision generated €254.3 million in revenue, up by 53% from a year earlier, and its discovery alliances produced €51.3 million, up by 55%. The discovery business realized more milestone payments during the period, including a €60 million payment from Sanofi SA for taking over development of the French’s company’s infectious disease portfolio.