April 3, 2020 - Fierce Biotech
Horizon Therapeutics has added to its growing acquisitive pipeline with the
buyout
of Curzion Pharmaceuticals for just $45 million.
It gains the privately held biotech’s oral selective lysophosphatidic acid 1 receptor antagonist, which was known as CZN001 and is now renamed HZN-825. Though a small upfront fee, biobucks are wedded to that drug’s success further down the line.
April 2, 2020 - Fierce Biotech
Although front-line treatments for multiple myeloma work well for most patients, many of them eventually relapse, running out of drugs to treat their cancer. Gilead Sciences’ Kite Pharma is working on new CAR-T therapies for these patients—and it’s enlisted Teneobio’s antibody technology to do so.
Under the
deal
, Kite is licensing a suite of antibodies from Teneobio that target BCMA, including one currently in a phase 1 study for multiple myeloma at the National Cancer Institute. The pair will also use Teneobio’s Human Heavy-Chain Antibodies (UniAb) platform to discover antibodies for up to four more targets to be used in CAR-T treatments for multiple myeloma. It’s part of a strategy to translate the response rates Kite has seen with Yescarta in blood cancers that express CD19—such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma—to patients with multiple myeloma, Peter Emtage, Ph.D., Kite’s senior vice president of research, told FierceBiotech.
April 2, 2020 - BioPharma Dive
Swiss pharma Novartis said on Wednesday it's terminating a potential $1 billion agreement to sell its Sandoz U.S. generic oral solids and dermatology businesses to Aurobindo Pharma after failing to win Federal Trade Commission approval.
The deal, announced in September 2018, couldn't get the OK from the FTC "within anticipated timelines," Novartis said in an April 2 statement.
April 2, 2020 - Fierce Biotech
The companies entering the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine will not only have to prove efficacy quickly, they’ll also have to figure out how to scale up production in time to help stem the current epidemic. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine say they’ve made progress on both fronts with their new COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The team developed a vaccine that can be delivered into the skin with a Band-Aid-like patch made of 400 tiny needles. When they tested it in mice, the vaccine produced antibodies to fend off the virus within two weeks, they
reported
in the journal EBioMedicine. The researchers are now applying for an investigational new drug designation from the FDA in the hopes of starting a phase 1 clinical trial shortly, they said in a
statement
.
April 1, 2020 - BioPharma Dive
Ultragenyx, a rare disease drug developer, has agreed to out-license its gene therapy technology to Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo in a deal worth at least $225 million.
The deal provides Daiichi with non-exclusive access to Ultragenyx's manufacturing platform for adeno-associated viruses, which are used in gene therapy to deliver the functioning genetic material into target cells. In exchange, Ultragenyx receives $200 million upfront, plus an option to co-develop and co-commercialize any rare disease gene therapies made through the platform.
